January, 2022 update — there have been no visits to the vaccination clinics by the Sullivan County Legislature.
December 16, 2021
Good morning, my name is Carol Montana. I come before you today to speak about two topics.
I have been volunteering with S.C. Public Health for the past nine (9) months. I recently learned that the Public Health staff has been working without a current contract since December 31 of 2020. These are the people you call your “health care heroes.” Not only don’t they have a current contract, but their “hazardous duty” pay for being on the front lines during Covid came out to the paltry sum of $288 after taxes.
These people deserve a contract. These are the people who put their lives on the line every single day to care for the Sullivan County Community. And here’s just one example.
Back at the beginning of this year, I, like many people in the United States, was having trouble getting an appointment for a Covid-19 vaccination. Websites were overloaded. Many sites said they had appointments. They didn’t.
I registered in six (6) different places including my pharmacy, Garnet Medical Center, my physician’s office, and a Callicoon pharmacy. I heard from none of these.
In desperation, I signed up for a March appointment in Binghamton. Luckily, Sullivan County Public Health advertised a clinic, and I got an in-county appointment on March 4 at 2:40 p.m.
The process was easy! I got to the SUNY Sullivan Field House, was directed downstairs, got registered, got my vaccination, sat there for 15 minutes and was ready to leave.
At that point, I decided I wanted to help others get vaccinated.
So, before I left the clinic, I asked how I could go about volunteering. And on March 18, 2021, I volunteered at my first Covid-19 vaccination clinic.
As of today, I have volunteered at 29 clinics (working approximately 174 hours or 4 1/3 weeks), at SUNY Sullivan, the South Fallsburg Youth & Senior Center, Liberty High School, Robert J. Kaiser Middle School in Monticello, Livingston Manor School, Cornelius Duggan School in White Lake, Sullivan County Public Health, Delaware Youth Center, Monticello Fire House, and just across the street at the Ted Stroebele Recreation Center.
In addition to the locations I attended, Sullivan County Public Health has held clinics at the Liberty BOCES parking lot, the Callicoon Depot, Monticello Job Fair, Livingston Manor Fire House, Sullivan West High School, the Highland Town Hall, and the Woodridge Village Hall.
That’s a total of 17 locations, some of which have been used as vaccination sites more than once.
At these 17 locations, there have been 134 clinics. This includes first dose, second dose and boosters. A total of 15,882 people have been vaccinated.
Just by the end of the summer 354 volunteers had donated 11,653 hours of their time.
Let me repeat that number 354 volunteers donated 11,653 hours – the equivalent of 291 weeks or more than 5 ½ years of time. At an average of $20 per hour, which is what your pay the custodians at the Adult Care Center, that time would cost you $233,060. And those are just the numbers from the end of the summer. It’s higher now.
During the vaccination clinics, lunches, water and snacks were often donated by local service organizations, restaurants and catering companies. I can’t list them all because I would surely leave someone out, the food was all greatly appreciated.
Sullivan County Public Health Medical Director, Dr. Bruce Ellsweig brought bags of bagels every time he came to a clinic. Every single time.
Which is more than this body has done. Have any of you volunteered to help? There are several non-medical roles you could take on — welcoming clients, registration, flow monitoring …
And because none of you attend the clinics, you’re probably not aware of the fact that the Public Health staff buys uses their own money to buy lollipops to give out to the clients who have been vaccinated. You’re probably not aware that Public Health Nurse Janna Walter used her own money to buy the snacks, and the little toys and trinkets to give to the children at the pediatric clinics.
Of the 29 clinics I’ve volunteered at, the only time I remember seeing any of you was for a photo op with the now ex- SUNY Chancellor. Other than the funds they need to run the basic clinics, have you ever given a single penny to the Public Health Department? Have you ever provided lunches for the staff and volunteers? Water? Snacks?
I have heard repeatedly from Public Health staff that they absolutely could not continue to host successful clinics without volunteer participation. In fact, here’s a quote from one of the staff members – “If we had to do this all by ourselves, we would have been sunk.” The Public Health staff is effusive with their thank yous.
This legislative body on the other hand, is not.
Not that something wasn’t suggested. Supervising public health nurse at the clinics Beverly Fran-scav-itch (Franskevicz), tells me that she spoke to both County Manager Josh Potosek and Social Services Commissioner John Liddle in late spring / early summer about having some kind of event to thank the public health staff and volunteers. “That’s a great idea,” she was told. And Bev even came up with ideas of what to do and where to do it.
And yet, nothing like that has happened.
I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but on June 2, Orange County led by County Executive Steve Neuhaus held a formal reception at the Otterkill Country Club for everyone who contributed to making their vaccine pods a success.
Now, I’m sure that the 354+ people who have helped out at the Covid-19 vaccination clinics didn’t volunteer so we could get a thank you from this esteemed body of legislators. But the lack of one, the lack of a concrete thank you is quite telling as to how you feel about the Sullivan County community.
At the present time, there are four vaccination clinics remaining in December, and 9 currently scheduled for January. Perhaps we’ll see you at one of them. Maybe you’ll bring a bag of lollipops.
Thank you.