In this episode, it’s our Friday morning visit with Auburn City Clerk Chuck Mason.
Operation Enduring Gratitude left from City Hall this morning. The program is a service project of Knights of Columbus Council #207. 75 veterans are on their way to Washington, DC to see the sites and visit the memorials. Among those on the trip is 91-year-old Anne Greer of Throop, who last visited Washington as the wife of a Marine in 1970. Greer also served in the Marine Corps at Camp Lejuene and Parris Island in the 1950s. She was nominated for the Marine Wife of the Year award in 2021. She will be the first female veteran from Cayuga County to go on an Operation Enduring Gratitude trip.
At Thursday’s meeting, the City Council issued a proclamation for EMS Week and presented it to Kezia Sullivan, the Director of the city’s new ambulance service. The council also presented a proclamation for Police Week to Chief James Slayton, who also introduced six new officers who recently graduated from the Police Academy.
Monika Salvage presented the results of a HEALing Communities study of substance abuse in the city, showing opioid abuse killed almost as many people in Cayuga County in 2020 as COVID-19 did. The project’s goal is to reduce the number of opioid deaths in the county by 40%.
Mason told us the city is studying whether to pass a law extending the authority to conduct virtual meetings through Zoom or other platforms. The emergency authorization to do so granted by the state expires at the end of June.
