Finger Lakes Today

During Mental Health Awareness Month, a New York organization is celebrating by helping people learn about mental health.
The Center for the Independence of the Disabled New York will be holding a Wellness Fair on May 13. Along with mental health, the fair will also focus on spiritual and physical health.
The fair will include a wellness circuit - which includes grounding techniques, coping strategies and mindfulness. Dr. Sharon McLennon-Wier, CIDNY's executive director, described the importance of mental health to overall health.
"The brain really oversees everything that we do and feel," said McLennon-Wier. "So, it's imperative that we learn how to regulate our emotions, understand what we eat can affect how we feel."
She added that it's also important to monitor how different activities affect mood regulation.
The Wellness Fair will be held at CIDNY's Manhattan office at 1010 6th Avenue from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Anyone looking to attend can register online at cidny.org.
According to Mental Health America's State of Mental Health report, almost 3 Million New Yorkers have a mental illness.
As important as mental health is, McLennon-Wier noted that there is still a stigma surrounding it.
Along with the need for payment parity, McLennon-Wier said there are other challenges that need to be addressed so people have better access to mental health services.
"There's never enough providers to give the services, right? We are in a short point of clinicians," said McLennon-Wier. "There are Ph.D-level clinicians as well as master's-level clinicians, and we need to get more people in the field."
A 2022 report from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds there are more than 200 Health Professional Shortage Areas in New York. The report also notes it would take 411 practitioners to remove the HPSA designations.
But, many feel this will come soon since $1 billion are being invested in mental-health care and staffing in the 2024 State Budget.

The Fatherhood Connection has seen immense growth as a program in recent years. Through the pandemic, the look and feel of that program changed, but the support and energy around it did not. Led by Executive Director Reggie Cox, and with the support of local advocates like Tracy VanVleck and David Groben in Seneca County, the Fatherhood Connection has seen incredible growth among young people and women.

To discuss that growth and opportunities to get involved- all three joined FingerLakes1.com this week.

This week in the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten was called in to testify about the union's pandemic response.

Each month we catch up with Chris Lajewski from the Montezuma Audubon Center to talk about what's happening at the Montezuma Wetlands Complex. Now, as the season transitions to mid-spring, we get the latest information on volunteer opportunities at the Auduon Center, as well as the migratory patterns of the month.

Coming up this summer is an event that has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for local charities and veteran causes. The Shootout for Soldiers is an annual lacrosse marathon, which takes place in Canandaigua. Today we caught up with Dr. Geoffry Hallstead, who's been a longtime supporter of the event, and John Isaac, who leads the organizational effort behind the Shootout.

New York has ambitious plans to decarbonize its buildings, the city’s largest source of emissions. It has banned gas connections in new buildings and put caps on how much existing buildings can emit. By 2027, all new buildings will need to be fully electric. Officials say those changes will help the city reduce building emissions by 40 percent by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050.

The Geneva Half Marathon & Relay presented by Red Jacket Orchard is coming up. It's a summertime staple along the shores of Seneca Lake in Geneva, which plays host to a number of prominent running events throughout the year. "The City of Geneva has been such a great partner with us," Heieck said. "The Welcome Center, Taste of NY- we couldn't do it without them as well. We've got volunteers all along the race route, and the town has been great as well."

For more information on the Geneva Half Marathon click here.

New York lawmakers and environmentalists are working to prevent radioactive wastewater from being dumped into the Hudson River. As part of the decommissioning of the Indian Point Energy Center, the facility's owner Holtec International is considering dumping treated but radioactive waste into the river. More than $1 billion was spent cleaning up pollution in the river with 200 miles of it still classified as a Superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Throughout Earth Month, elected officials across the U.S. are celebrating renewable energy projects.
In New York, several wind, solar and hydroelectric developments were completed that will power more than 150,00 homes across the state with clean electricity.
Along with these, several offshore wind farms are under construction off the coast of Long Island. East Hampton Town Council member Cate Rogers described the public feedback from residents.
"The community as a whole was in favor," said Rogers. "There are concerns, I don't want to make it like there weren't legitimate concerns from our fishing industry out there. We have a lot of generational fishermen out here in Montauk who are fearful of the impacts to their industry."
She said other concerns are related to safety and construction. Rogers said there was a great deal of opposition to where the transmission cable would have come ashore, although it has since been resolved.
Upon completion, this 132 megawatt offshore wind farm will power 70,000 homes throughout the town of East Hampton.
In New Jersey, the Ocean Wind offshore wind farm will be aiding the state's climate goals. Once it's operational in late 2024, it will be able to produce 1,100 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 500,000 homes.
Doug O'Malley - director of Environment New Jersey - said one key to this project's success is the New Jersey Wind Port, where offshore wind turbines will be both manufactured and marshaled to sea.
"The Wind Port is a massive 200 acre facility that for the most part is still kind of open land right now," said O'Malley. "But, over the course of the next two to three years, it will employ 1,500 workers full time."
O'Malley noted that this facility's location puts it in a prime position to get wind turbines out into the ocean for easy construction.
At a federal level, 36 members of Congress, led by New Jersey U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. - D-Paterson - signed a letter calling on U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to issue clarifying guidance that entire offshore wind projects are eligible for the Investment Tax Credit.

As negotiations over the state budget intensify, over 300 businesses and business organizations across New York have joined the New York Business for a Fair Minimum Wage coalition calling on Gov. Hochul and the State Legislature to incrementally raise the minimum wage to $21.25, followed by annual indexing to keep up with the cost of living, as proposed in the Raise the Wage Act.

Supporters include business leaders across the state from Buffalo and the Finger Lakes to the Capital Region and the Hudson Valley to New York City and the Long Island African American Chamber of Commerce.

This week we caught up with Ithaca business owner Leon Miller-Out, who says raising minimum wage is the right thing to do. The proposal would bring minimum wage up to $16 on Jan. 1, 2024; $18 in 2025; $20 in 2026; and $21.25 plus indexing starting in 2027.