We've got a remote control. So until they get you small 50 a pop this year, it'll cost you five grand for that. Ladies and gentlemen, let's get started. Okay, before we start our budget meeting, we have a presentation tonight with Shawn Smith, coordinator at Family Services of Schmonk County. Brent Stermer set this up, and you see Brent's here. He already knows it. So welcome. Hi. So I'll go ahead and just pass these around. It's just some information as far as I'll collect them at the end, because obviously there are some of our paperwork that we use there. But I just want you guys to see what we actually use when we get started with the program. So I'll pass these around. Feel free to take one. Do you have a clipper? Oh, is this a clipper? Right there. So hi, everyone. My name is Shawn Stowe. I'm actually the Compier Coordinator. And Compeer, they're located over at 310 Pennsylvania Ave. And I actually am a student. Right now I go to Binghamton University. I'm going for a dual degree in my Social Work and Public Administration. So I did my undergrad internship through Family Services. And the Compeer program was suffering really bad. They had case managers that they had assigned to the program. that actually did not have time to work it. So they had full caseloads. They were going into the school. They were handing the kids a worksheet and saying, here you go, kids. And they're giving up their recess time. So the kids were crying, saying, I don't want to go to Circle of Friends anymore. So she said to me, either we can get this off the ground or we have to end it. So I was like, all right, let me take a stab at it. So I did. I picked it up, I went in, they had zero volunteers when we first started. We now have over ten volunteers so that come into the schools on a regular basis. The comp here umbrella consists of circle of friends and adult one to one program and we'll kind of quickly go through each one of those so you have an understanding of what that's about. This is our website at the top and that's my email address if anyone needs to get a hold of me as well. So just a little quick information. These slides are not fully packed with information, I promise you. It's just kind of some basic stuff. But just about Compere, what circle of friends overall, our program structure, what's adult one-to-one, what's the clearance process that we go through, our volunteers, where we get them, why funding is so important to us, and then if you guys have any questions at all. So about Compeer overall, Compeer originated in 1973. It was originally an adopt a patient program based out of Rochester. And it provided social support to people that were hospitalized. And the program went over so well that in 1977 it became an independent agency. And we are 100%, we do not have any type of federal funding or state funding. We're 100% grant based only. So all of our funding comes from grants, which I write. So it did expand nationally with the support from the National Institute of Mental Health. And now it operates as a global network. So we do have meetings, international meetings and things like that, where we talk to people from all over and just kind of network with each other and see what's working in different areas. And these are actual pictures from newspapers and things that were out at that time. So these are the values overall. So like Comp Peer, it's spelled downward. So you have compassion, opportunity, mental well-being, peer, affiliate support, equity and belonging, empowerment and relationships. So these are all things that Comp Peer really wants to make sure that we're doing well. So this is my love right here, Circle of Friends. These are actually some of my kids. These guys are based in Riverside. So it's a program that is for pre-K through fifth grade. And what we do is we go into the schools and we work with kids that don't have a really good home life. So some of these kids struggle with behavior issues. There are kids that are generally really don't have a good social support within the school. They might be bullied. things like that. They may not have very good hygiene, things like that. So what they do is the school or the teachers will refer them to us. And we start all the way as early as pre-K. And it provides a safe, supportive peer connections, gives positive role models. All of our volunteers will come into the schools. We'll play games with the kids. different things as far as teaching them how to share, how to have empathy with other students, how to do like emotional regulation, things like that so that they're not, we're trying to minimize some of the acting out in classes where the kids are having to be taken out of the classes. I've had some students who had a really bad day and came in and just completely threw temper tantrums. And the counselor had said to me, she said, So they're done, right, in the program? They can't come anymore, right? And I said, no, they can still come. That's what this program is for. We want these kids to come in so they can learn these skills. We don't want to kick them out of the program. So she was really surprised by that. She was like, a lot of places will just say the kids can't come if they're acting out. But we try to give them better tools to use to be able to handle some of the feelings themselves. We have, we're meeting in five schools right now. So we're in Facet, Riverside, Broadway, Hendy, and Colburn right now. Circle of Friends meets two times a month. So I alternate the schools. Since I'm in school, I go to school Mondays and Tuesdays. So I'm only in there three days a week. So I'm Wednesday, Thursdays, and Fridays. And we meet from October through May. Each session will have a skill building activity in small groups. So like if I have volunteers that are coming in, we'll break off into little small groups and do stuff together just to kind of work on some of those skills. So inside your folders is a calendar and our circle of friends lunch times. So what we do is we go through and we get the volunteers. And once they go through the process of clearance and everything, then we'll have them, I'll send them out a calendar that looks like this. And I'll say, okay, I'll add them to a text chain. Say, okay, guys, everybody, we're in facet today. Who's available? And then they'll say, I'm available. I can come during this time or whatever. And then we have the volunteers come in. That's usually how I coordinate everything. And then the schools also receive the calendars. I put the calendars together for them and send it over to the counselor so they're fully aware. I'll even drop off like badges to the kids so they each have a badge that they wear that they think is really cool because they have something that other kids don't have. So then they'll pass the badges out that morning and stuff. And a lot of the kids have been really excited about coming this year. Our adult one-to-one program, this is a mental health support program. This is for our actual adults. It can be based out of anywhere. We can receive referrals from AIM, from Elmira Psychiatric Center, from wherever I've gotten referrals from. If there's somebody that they have a client that is in need of friendship or mentorship or is like, maybe this person is just lonely, wants to have somebody to go do something with, they'll refer them to us. And then what we do is all of the participants that come in, none of them are kids. We used to have a PAL program. But unfortunately, I'm only one person, so I can't do it all. So I had to limit what we were able to do. So I have a child program and adult program. So the adults are 18 plus. They have a diagnosed mental health condition. We are very careful about who we put with people. So we're not going to put, if somebody has a mental health condition, it's not going to be one where our volunteer would be in danger in any way. It's usually generally people who have anxiety or depression, social anxiety, just a loneliness, things like that. They are referred by a mental health professional that fills out the paperwork and turns it back into us. And then what we do is we pair. one adult volunteer from the community that wants to volunteer for the program with one adult that's receiving those mental health services. The pair would actually spend time together. They can call them on the phone. Generally it's about four hours a month that we really like for them to spend with the person. There's actually a time sheet that they fill out and everything that tells us when they're spending time with that person so that we're making sure that the person is actually getting something out of the program. They can attend anything, events, hobbies. And it's really to try to reduce that isolation and loneliness, improve the social skills, confidence with the person. But yeah, the features that make it unique, it's matching based on interests and personalities. So also in your folders, we have the application in there for the adult one-to-one program. And if you look at it, it's very extensive. So it'll ask them, what's your interest? What do you like to do? Do you like to go shopping? Whatever. And then what happens is they'll fill out the interest for that person, but then my volunteer is also filling out interest. They're doing an application. So what I do is when I get a match, I go through, match it up based off of their interests. They come into the office. They meet each other. And then I meet with them separately and say, do you like this match? Do you think this is going to work for you? They say, no, that's fine. They just leave and we'll match them with someone else. But we haven't had any issues so far. It's been really good. All right, so our clearance process paperwork is also in there. We do extensive background checks. Everything is covered by our agency. We don't have anybody pay for any fingerprinting or anything like that. They will go through and fill out an application. They will provide me with at least two to three references. I call those references and double check them. I'll ask them questions like, have you ever rode in a car with this person? How does this person handle conflict? If this person was in a situation where someone was trying to cross boundaries, how would they handle those boundaries? Things like that. So I want to really get an idea of what this person is about. And I know one of the things we will not allow them to do is give us any type of relatives or anybody that lives in the same home with them. I want to have somebody that you worked for before or somebody that has known you. I don't even care if it was 10 years down the road. I just want to know. I want to have somebody be able to answer these questions. Once that comes back to me and I've checked the references and it's scanned over to our HR department, And then HR will have them fill out a background check form that will say where they have lived at for the last 18 years. We'll go through, and any time I do a presentation, I always say, please make sure that, like, to the kids in college, I'm like, please start writing down any addresses that you've lived at, because if you go through any type of clearance later on for, like, a job or anything, a lot of times they'll ask you, where have you lived? They're going to want to run that background check. Once we get that paperwork back, then we send them for the fingerprinting. And then once the fingerprinting comes back, then they send, my HR person sends me a message and says, they're clear to start. You can go ahead and contact them to come in. So our volunteers generally come from Elmira College. We have a really good, really good relationship with them. I've went over and spoke there many times. That's where I met Brent at, was at the college fair. And... Also the head of social work over there, I talk to her on a pretty regular basis. We get a lot of social media. We get a lot of referrals that'll come in based off a post that we'll put up on social media. And then also the retired community. So a lot of people wanting to get out, wanting to do something. And we have a lot of older people too that come in for counseling and things like that. And they don't want to be paired up with someone who's like 18 because the person doesn't know anything about what their interests are. So we try to get older people that'll come in and do the adult one-to-one program as well. So our funding, like I said, all of our funding is done through grants. It's so, so important. In order for us to be able to stay afloat and for us to stay sustainable, we have to have funding that comes in on a regular basis. So the overall family services is supported by Medicaid funding, but we don't. We don't get any of that. So because it's so limited, I'm constantly writing grants on a regular basis, just trying to keep money coming in so that we have money for things that we need at the schools. We provide all of the crayons, markers, anything. I do parties for the kids, different things like that. So without it, we're not able to sustain the program. We try to make sure that these kids are having a good time, they're building the skills that they need, so they can ultimately become productive citizens down the line. But I really wanted to show you guys this. This is one of my kids. about what we did today. We were decorating Easter eggs right before Easter. So say bye. Bye. They all get so nervous when they get on camera, but they're like, I want to do it, I want to do it. But as soon as you put them on camera, they're like, they're instantly nervous. But I do have other kids that I've put on here. That's Mason. He did a video as well. Larea, she's my pre-K-er. She wanted to do one too. Right now we're doing eight. Right now we're doing eight. She just starts going off on a different direction. Yeah. Why do you like coming to Circle of Friends? Because I like it and we do a bunch of projects together. Yeah. Do we play games sometimes? Yeah. Yeah. Like when I'm doing this, I just try to finish it up right now. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's really cute. Are you looking forward to Circle of Friends next year? Yes. Yes. Is next year Circle of Friends? Yeah, next year we'll have Circle of Friends, too. I want my sister to sign up. You want your sister to sign up. So yeah, so just some of the kids, we had probably about 10 kids that actually did a video, but I was like, yeah, we'll watch all of them. But they all pretty much say the same thing. Like, we have a good time coming here. We love it. You know, like, we just want to, you know, be able to come and do activities and stuff. And they've actually had an overwhelming amount of kids that have been asking the counselors, how can I sign up for Circle of Friends? Unfortunately, I don't have, I have to be able to have more people coming in to do it, and I'm still in the process of building it. We're working on getting interns right now, so we're able to branch the program even more and be in even more schools. So yeah, but thank you so much, yeah. So does a teacher or someone kind of brief you on, listen, this is the problems that this kid is suffering, and this is what we'd like to see? So what they do is on the actual application that's in there, they fill out what the child has been diagnosed with. They give us some goals that they want to work on, but they don't actually, they send me over like a pile of like referral forms and it's up to me to read through them. So I kind of really read through the packets, make sure that I get to know the kids really well. We have kids that are, One of the things that I've noticed even with the Elmira College students coming in, some of the kids take to them really well. So they'll be like, are you coming back next time and stuff. So we have a steady group that's been coming to certain schools, but we definitely need more volunteers. But yeah, they don't really tell me a lot. They just send me over the referral forms with all the information on it. Any other questions? Okay. Absolutely. Yeah, of course. Yeah. And there is inside the folder, if you do want to take out, there's a couple flyers in there if you do want. I need one. Yeah. And you do need one. Yeah. My concept. Oh, okay. All right. Marty wants one. Yeah. Make him feel good. My contact information is right there on the bottom. All right, perfect. It's all on me. Thank you so much. I appreciate you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we all set? All righty, we've got four resolutions this evening. No communications. Resolutions, motions, and notices. Number one, resolution authorizing agreement with 3 Plus 1 Company, Inc. on behalf of the Chemung County Treasurer. Number two, resolution authorizing agreements with Schmunk Canal Trust Company on behalf of the Schmunk County Treasurer. Number three, resolution renewing agreements with Corning Abstract and Closing Services on behalf of the Schmunk County Treasurer. And number four, resolution approving certain applications for and distribution of community development funds. Could I have a motion, please? Buren. Okay, Marty and Buren is a second. Any questions or discussions? Since everything has to do with the treasurer, she's here. So if you want to ask any questions. All in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Is there any old business? Yes, sir. I just blew off the subject. Do you have any update on the Carrington Aviation issue at the airport? Yeah. We're trying to have some discussion with the county executive and the county attorney. And there was a list of questions that were sent to Joe Roman at the IDA asking for information. There's about seven or eight questions that the county executive would like answered. And those questions have been answered by the attorney and Joe Roman. And my hope is that we're able to move forward on this situation soon, but I'm not 100% sure. Some of the questions that were asked were who made the deal with Carrington? How much was it for? How long have they been there? Who was the real estate person on the deal? How much was spent on marketing? Those were the main questions, and then the last is County Executive would like the IDA to sign a land lease going back to the start of Carrington leasing the space. So, which there isn't a land lease in place right now for the IDA. But County Executive would like a land lease signed and Carrington Aviation entered the building, and he would like the IDA to pay the land lease back to that period of time, which would be, I don't know, approximately a year and a half ago. And so that's where we're at right now. There's some questions on the survey. There have been two done. And that's pretty much it, I think, for questions. Thank you. Any other questions? Is there any new business? Yes. So I have been talking to a few of you in leadership regarding what we can actually do for our constituents for NYSEG purposes and such. And I have set up, Mark gave me the okay to go ahead and set up at next budget meeting, Katrina Mancini, who I'm sure you guys are seeing her e-mails in your box, and also Ryan Gregor, who is state government. Relations Manager, they'll be coming and giving a presentation to really help break down some things on the bill. I had a conference call with them a few weeks ago and it was very enlightening and very angering to really start understanding some of the stuff on the bill and to give us some practical ideas of how we can help our constituents. I'm sure that you all saw County Exec's proposed plan that if I'm understanding correctly, will be coming to us for some review and proposal? Yeah, I received an email today that he wants, actually, the county attorney is doing some work on the legalities. And once that's put together, they'll put together a resolution and push it up. And I told him that we would expedite it. So as soon as we get that information, we'll work on it, get it going. So hopefully a lot of what they have, to present to us will help us make some good decisions of what we can actually do. On top of that, with the electric costs going like crazy, and knowing that solar just is not the answer for everything, I've been doing a lot of research on hydroelectric, especially given the river we have here, and there's some really neat developments coming out of Canada. So I am asking if we could form an exploratory committee to start talking about some of that stuff, talking to some engineers, and getting some ideas of what we can do realistically around here, if we can help out the grid at all. I think that'd be a great idea. I think we will have a leadership meeting coming up soon. And we'll put ad hoc committee together to work with you on that. Awesome. I'd appreciate that. And one last thing. April 17th down in Pennsylvania, Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, some state officials are putting together a data center public hearing meeting. If you haven't been paying attention to what goes on with the data centers and the potential of that becoming a major issue, please review that. But just to let you know, there's that meeting that I will be attending. If anybody else is interested or wants to go down the rabbit hole of data centers with me, please join me. And the problem with that is the excess use of energy. Yeah, so there's actually a proposed center coming to some place in upstate New York that if it goes through and it gets on the grid, it's gonna take about 200,000 average households electric consumption and 20,000 gallons of water a day. So it's a huge drain on resources that we need to really be paying attention to and making sure we're ahead of the game. Mm-hm, okay, all good information. Anything else on a new business? Yes, sir. I don't know if it's appropriate for this right now, but I received an email about the desire for us to recognize ALS. That's taken care of. It's already set. Thanks, Mike. There you go. There you go. Anything else? Yes, sir. Are you going to talk at all about the county executive's letter about forgiving the sales tax? Go ahead. Okay. First of all, Luana, did the hydro thing? I believe, I'm not 100% on this, but I believe this Thursday evening, it's 6 o'clock in Montour. Schuyler County is doing a informational thing on that. I thought they were looking into nuclear, though. Yeah, nuclear. It's for nuclear. Yeah, it's for nuclear. Just so you know. Okay, I'll look into that. That's a good idea. Yeah. And also, I believe Luana brought this up about the forgiveness of the sales tax on utility bills, I don't know, several months ago. And we didn't get the first base on it. But I'm not going to be here for the full board meeting. So if this is expedited and the resolution is that night, I won't be here to vote. But what I do want to say is this. Looking at my bill, and I think my bill is probably average to, you know, my house isn't anything huge or small or whatever. I think it's kind of average. My last bill was $314, and if the tax wasn't there, it would have been $302. Okay. And so, I did some calculating on the gas tax. first $3 will still be taxed and then after that. So assuming it was $4 instead of, you know, so we got a dollar, we're going to tax. And the utilities also. In a six-month period, it's probably about $100, maybe something like that. Total savings over six months. Where I'm going with it is this. Right now, there are only, out of 62 counties in New York State, there's only 14 counties that tax on the utility side. On the gas side, I think everybody does. But on the utility side, there's only 14 out of the 62 counties. If we go six months on this, it would end in November when your utility bills are starting to go up. So not only would your utility bills start to go up, you're going to get this charge back on there. So that'll be a hit. So where I'm going with it is this. And again, I won't be here for this, but I would ask the board to consider, rather than six months, to go a year. To go a year on the utility piece, not the gas piece, but the utility piece. That way, it gives you a little bit of time to kind of see what the impact is and so on. It's not a huge savings to the individual, but at least it's something. It's something. It's something there. So I just wanted to throw that out and ask that you at least consider that. comes time for a resolution. Good idea. Anything else? Motion to adjourn. Thank you, Marty and John. Thank you. Meeting adjourned.