March 15, 2024
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand today announced that they have secured $850,000 in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 appropriations bills to support local law enforcement and make critical water system upgrades, increasing the safety and health of Livingston communities.
$700,000 for the Livingston County Water & Sewer Authority to preserve and improve drinking water quality and promote water conservation
The Livingston County Water & Sewer Authority will use the funding to make the needed improvements to the Cybersecurity and SCADA system that will provide the needed real time monitoring of their water and wastewater utilities, while providing the continuous cyber security needs to protect their assets on a 24/7 basis and bolster their systems against cyberattacks. Currently, their systems are at risk of cyber breaches, but the funding will enable the Authority to have a secure and reliable communications infrastructure across all remote water and wastewater utilities and facilities. This will enable the County to better treat safe drinking water and ensure their wastewater treatment practices protect water bodies.
$150,000 for Livingston County Law Enforcement for the procurement, training and deployment of a virtual law enforcement training simulator
Livingston County Law Enforcement will use the funding to train officers for real-world scenarios through a virtual law enforcement training simulator that focus on de-escalation and community engagement. A training simulator places an officer in many diverse scenarios ranging from high stress critical incidents that employ force options to community engagement scenarios helping disabled persons, medical emergencies and mental health/substance abuse individuals. This investment in community orientated policing will improve the criminal justice system and provide victim services by giving officers proper training and preparedness for all situations they may have to deal with.
$1.6 million for Keuka College’s Rural Community Outpatient Clinic
This $1.6 million investment will be game changing for Keuka College, its students, and the surrounding Finger Lakes community. These federal dollars will not only provide affordable and accessible healthcare to 1000 area residents, but it will also address the severe shortage of healthcare workers in Yates and provide vital resources. Keuka College will use this funding to construct a Rural Community Outpatient Clinic, providing local residents with access to primary care, mental health counseling, physical therapy, wellness coaching, and athletics. The creation of this clinic will drive increased enrollment in Keuka College and provide clinical training opportunities for 100 students per year in the College’s healthcare programs, addressing the severe shortage of available fieldwork clinical training opportunities in NY State while creating more well qualified healthcare professionals to serve New York State. It will also create increased jobs at the clinic and through the education of well qualified health and human service students at Keuka College that will utilize the clinic for internships and hands-on experience
