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WPCNR’S ADAM IN ALBANY. By District 89 Assemblyperson Adam T. Bradley. January 24, 2004: When it comes to our health, or the health of our loved ones — we cannot compromise the care our families need. Last year, the governor tried to cut health care by $2 billion before a bipartisan legislative coalition stopped him. This year, the governor is repeating many of his wrong choices of last year by proposing a $1.4 billion cut to health care, including:

·        Nearly $800 million in cuts to Medicaid;

·        A “sick tax” on hospitals, nursing homes and home health care agencies – that will cost these providers $429 million; and

·        $178 million in cuts to other public health programs.

To make matters worse, the governor’s budget pushes affordable health care out of reach for those who need it the most. The governor is proposing co-pays and eliminating dental and vision coverage for people covered by the Family Health Program, which is the state program bringing affordable health care to the uninsured. Additionally, his budget cuts $75 million in Early Intervention funds when fully implemented – which hurts our most vulnerable, disabled children.

In a blow to seniors, the governor’s budget attempts to cut $60 million from EPIC, the state’s prescription drug program that helps them afford their medication. These cuts will drive pharmacies out of the program and make prescription drugs less available to seniors.

With many of our hospitals and nursing homes already losing money and facing severe staffing shortages, cutting Medicaid will only threaten the quality of care available to our families. These cuts and the governor’s proposal to raise taxes on hospitals, nursing homes, and home-care agencies will force health care facilities to cut jobs and eliminate services. The Healthcare Association of New York State has called on the legislature to “again reject the tax-and-cut proposals from the Governor.”

Just last year, St. Agnes hospital in White Plains closed and this year Westchester County Medical Center is facing severe financial difficulties. The medical center, the largest hospital in the seven-county Hudson Valley region, provides important care that local hospitals are unable to provide and is one of Westchester’s largest employers. It recently layed-off 300 employees. The center also recently received a credit rating near junk bond status. The governor’s budget proposal threatens to seriously jeopardize the quality of care here in Westchester County and may further hinder the medical center’s ability to thrive.

To relieve local governments from escalating Medicaid costs, the governor has proposed a ten-year takeover of long-term care – saving localities just $24 million this year. I’m encouraged that the governor has finally followed the Assembly’s leadership and addressed the need to ease the Medicaid burden on local taxpayers.

In fact, had the governor gone along with the Assembly’s proposals to have the state assume a larger share of Medicaid and the full non-federal share of Family Health Plus, we would have saved local taxpayers over $750 million since 1995.

 Essentially, the governor’s budget asks us to pay more for health care and, in turn, receive poorer care. Our families deserve better. I will continue fighting to ensure that Westchester families have access to the type of quality health care that saves lives.

WPCNR FOR THE RECORD. From Paul Wood, The Mayor’s Office. January 23, 2004: City Hall complied promptly and courteously to WPCNR’s official Freedom of  Information Law Request to the Department of Public Works Friday for a copy of the September 14, 2001, Memorandum provided the Journal News as a result of that medium’s FOIL request. Herewith is the text of that Memorandum, written by Joseph Nicoletti, Commissioner of Public Works, City of White Plains, to George Gretsas, the Mayor’s Executive Officer, at 7:12 P.M., September 14, 2001.

A MYSTERY MEMO NO MORE: The Mystery Memo by Joseph Nicoletti was faxed Friday at 5:10 P.M. E.S.T. to the WPCNR News Center. The transcribed text follows. Photo by WPCNR NewsLab

From: Joseph Nicoletti

To: George Gretsas

Date: 9/14/01  7:12 P.M.

Subject: Sanitary Sewer capacity regarding Cappelli project

George,

As per your request and yesterday’s discussion, we have investigated the capacity of the City’s sanitary sewer system so as to determine if it will be adequate to cope with the loads from the City Center project.

Although the developer is now performing actual flow meter tests in various S/S (sanitary sewer) manhole locations downstream of their project site, we did manual observations of the outfall pipes. Note that these pipes are between fifteen and twenty feet below the surfact of the roadways, and the measurement of fluid level entailed our men going to the bottom of these manhole shafts at hourly intervals last night and this morning. While there was expectedly a lull in flow after midnight, it picked up again after 4:00AM and was never found to be much below the 75% level throughout the day and into the evening. In many instances (particularly near the Martin Luther King Blvd. intersection with Main St.- where the 16” diam. Line connects to the newer 27” and then quickly to a 30”) we noted the pipes to be running very close to design capacity. Of course, this is with the present building load. The additional sewage from the Cappelli project will easily overload this length of pipe and cause catastrophic backups. Further the current 8” pipe which resides in Main Street between City Hall and the City Center site is now running at 40% capacity and will definitely need to be replaced with a larger pipe, say 16”, in order to handle the discharge from the north apartment tower and the movie theater. This small line (the minimum size for a munipal S/S main) is very old (constructed of clay) and serves very little else at the present time, other than the Fleet Bank, City Hall and Halpern’s office building next door to us at 245 Main Street.

We have also done a cursory cost estimate to install ductile iron pipe of a large size in the necessary areas:

Replacement of the present 8” clay tile pipe from a manhole on Main Street, just West of Conroy Drive, to the intersection with Mamaroneck Ave. will require about 470 linear feet of pipe. We have never seen sewer pipe replaced for less than $100/ft. in recent years, but because of the location, depth, preponderance of existing underground utilities, and the need to replay the new pipe in the exiting pipe’s trench, We would estimate costs to be more on the order of $300/ft. The depth of the pipe requires significant sheeting and shoring, and the many other utilities will need to be temporarily rerouted during construction (gas, electric telephone, fiberoptic cable and numerous lateral service lines will be in the way). As the roadway carries significant traffic volumes, shortened work days (or late night construction hours) will need to be instituted and expensive traffic control and protection devices will be required. Finally, since there is no alternative corridor for the new line to occupy, it will have to go in the original pipe’s trench, thus requiring a bypass pump system to operate while the old line is taken out of service. Estimate a this time: $150,000.00.

The second piece of this concerns the existing 16” and 18” lines which connect on Main Street between Mamaroneck Ave. and Martin Luther King Blvd. This line is even deeper than the aforementioned 8” line and owing to its even more critical location in Main Street, we project costs to be $500/ft. This results in a value of about $500,000.00 for its 1,150 foot length.

In short, based upon present information and our historical experience, the total sanitary sewer work necessary to support the City Center project (commercial and residential components) is estimated to be $650,000.00 exclusive of design costs, construction management, and as-built certifications. This could amount to an additional $100,000.00. We stress that these costs are only projections, and that the project would need to be fully designed first in order to get better accuracy, and then put out to bid to test to market reaction to the difficulty of the job.

Thanks,

Bud