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Turn to page 7 to see how you can support community journalism. Published By Denton Publications Inc.
February 29, 2020
Valley News
suncommunitynews.com
• EDITION •
Essex tackles housing issue
THIRD TIME’S A CHARM?
STL regulations debated once again See STRS » pg. 3
About 200 people attended a public hearing concerning short term rental properties in Lake Placid.
Photo by Tim Rowland
“I can. I will. I’ll try. I’ll do.” Essex Center resident Judy Rushford inspires hope, perseverance By Kim Dedam STAFF WRITER
ELIZABETHTOWN | Every minute of hard work moves Judy Rushford toward one goal: to stand on two legs and walk again. Judy is in physical therapy training to prepare for a new prosthesis, a full leg that will connect to her hip. “They’re working on my ‘trunk,’” Judy said candidly. Physical therapists at Essex Center have gotten behind her incredible effort, a singular focus now with a 24-year-long backstory of tragedy, pain, human will and perseverance. Seated in her wheelchair, Judy spoke with the Sun one morning in February. “This prosthesis is a big deal because they said I couldn’t have one,” she explained. Not about to leave any stone unturned, Judy uncovered the possibility while shopping for shoes. “Out of curiosity, I went into Mountain Prosthetics in Plattsburgh,”
Having overcome many challenges already, Judy Rushford is working in earnest with physical therapists at Essex Center to strengthen her body, preparing for a full-leg prosthesis. Photo by Kim Dedam
she said of sheer luck that drew this opportunity to her. “I asked ‘do you make prosthetic legs that are cut all the way up to the hip bone?’ They told me,‘well, we’ve made two. We can make three. How motivated are you?’” See RUSHFORD » pg. 3
Committee will target affordable housing By Tim Rowland STAFF WRITER
ELIZABETHTOWN | With affordable housing becoming increasingly scarce, Essex County is putting together a task force to study county housing inventories and figure out how to get reasonably priced homes into the hands of local, working people. The committee was created by Essex County Supervisors’ Chair Shaun Gillilland, and will be led by Lewis Town Supervisor Jim Monty. It will include representatives of government, nonprofits and organizations that are involved in the affordable housing issue. Monty said the committee’s work could lead to the creation of a housing authority, or some similar agency, that would use untapped pools of grant money to build or rehabilitate homes and sell them to a strata of Essex County residents who are employed, but lack assets or the income it would take to buy a house on the open market. Increasingly, local officials fear, Essex County is becoming a place where only the relatively wealthy can afford to buy a home. “There are people who are gainfully employed, but struggle to find housing,” Monty said. A number of factors have fueled the problem. Economics, demographics, technology and a growing number of vacationers have skewed the marketplace to the point where buying or renting a house has become problematic for people of low or moderate means, Gillilland said. It’s not necessarily a new problem, he said, but “it’s been exacerbated in some towns around the county because of vacation homes and short term rentals.” See HOUSING» pg. 2
Flu “widespread” throughout New York; peak not hit Essex, Clinton counties mark 10 plus cases per 100,000 By Kim Dedam STAFF WRITER
ELIZABETHTOWN |Incidence of flu this season is widespread throughout New York, including Essex County. Susan Lopez Allott, R.N., M.S., is director of the Essex County Public Health Preventive Services. Allott said every county in New York State has greater than or equal to 10 cases per 100,000 population. “We get reports of flu on a daily basis,” Allott told the Sun. “The number of flu cases is very high. What is different this flu season is the proportion of Influenza B to Influenza A. We had Influenza B occur earlier in the season.” Allott provided the most recent data gathered by state Department of Health officials. It shows that influenza activity level was categorized as geographically “widespread” for the 11th consecutive week, a condition much the same throughout the U.S., except for “moderate” flu cases in Nevada and Oregon; “low” in the District of Columbia, Alaska and Florida; and minimal in Idaho.
Photo from U.S. Centers for Disease Control
See FLU » pg. 2
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