Fight to stop DOCS, OCFS closings
unites unions, townspeople, leaders
By SHERRY HALBROOK small communities depend on state
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Photos by LISA PULVER institutions,” said PEF President Ken
Reading or listening to news reports on Brynien, who along with other PEF
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state budget cuts, it’s easy to block out leaders, also visited these worksites and
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the mind-numbing succession of facts attended the community meetings in B
and multi-million-dollar figures. For most January and February.
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people it’s all too abstract and unreal to “Closing these facilities or substantially
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provoke any strong, personal response. reducing their work forces,” Brynien said,
But in some of New York’s most rural “will pull the plug on these local
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and remote communities, the threat of economies that already are reeling from
state budget and job cuts is personal, hard times.”
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powerful and frighteningly real. Moriah is near Port Henry on Lake
“My staff and I spent weeks in January Champlain, an area gut-punched last
OGDENSBURG
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and February traveling from one year when its only bridge across the lake SAVEOCF—PEFRegion7Coordinator
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threatened state worksite to another,” to Vermont was declared unsafe and TomDonahuetalkswithBarbaraTouron
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said PEF Director of Member Mobilization closed. Recently the bridge was andLoriAubrey-Smithafteracommunity
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Margaret Messer. “I’ll never forget it, demolished and a ferry service was finally meetingtosaveOgdensburgCF. A
especially this one place we went. There established to re-connect the
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just wasn’t anything there for miles community’s economic lifeline.
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around, and then we turned off onto a Mineville, in the Town of Moriah, is an
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little road and suddenly we were in the old iron-ore mining community.
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middle of a huge traffic jam. I couldn’t “Moriah Shock Incarceration
imagine where they all came from, but it Correctional Facility is a community,”
was clear we were all going to the same said PEF Division 382 Council Leader
place.” Richard Sheffer, a teacher 4. “Moriah
That place was a meeting January 28 embraced the facility, as it did the mines,
near Mineville to talk about the governor’s to provide employment for the
budget proposal to close Moriah Shock surrounding area.”
Incarceration Correctional Facility, one of Sheffer said the wild, remote character
the few employers in that entire area. of the area with its harsh environmental
Nearly every family has someone working challenges is actually an asset for the
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there and every business has the “shock” program that uses a boot camp
trails, campsites, roads and other public
customers who work there. style to help inmates get a new and better
facilities throughout the Adirondack
“It’s heartwarming to have strong vision of themselves, set better goals and
Park,” Sheffer said. “For 20 years, Moriah
community support, but it’s also make better choices.
heartbreaking to see how much these “The inmates at Moriah care for the Continued on Page 6
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