Alec Linden
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Feedback sought at public forum as part of a five-year improvement plan for County’s Family Services
Oct 16, 2024
Krista Briggs
POUGHKEEPSIE — On the evening of Wednesday, Oct. 2, the Dutchess County Department of Community and Family Services (DCFS) held an open forum at the Department of Mental Health to discuss a five-year Child and Family Services (CFS) Plan.
Fiscal and staffing challenges aside, the focus of DCFS remains on refining the five-year plan, meeting its targets and serving the county’s most vulnerable residents, many of whom depend on these supports simply to survive.
The forum, which provided residents with detailed information on county services and programs for the domestic, physical and emotional wellbeing of children and adults in the county, also gave attendees the opportunity to weigh in on the plan, which runs from 2024 through 2029.
Dutchess County is obliged to provide a plan detailing social services offerings to New York State every five years, DCFS Commissioner Sabrina Jaar Marzouka said. The county works in conjunction with the state to identify programs for further development and improvement.
“We do not choose our goals,” Marzouka said. “They are prescribed by the state. So they give us a handful to choose from, based on what we determine to be our needs and from our data.”
The county can adjust goals as needed but must meet state requirements. These goals and their associated strategies are determined by research, data, and stakeholder meetings with companies, agencies, and individuals.
While DCFS team members tackled various components of the proposal’s planning stages, the end-result is expected to be a cohesive plan created by the state, county, and residents following public comment.
While programs such as Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP), fall under the DCFS umbrella, the public session focused on three specific offerings — Child Protective Services, Preventive Services, and Adult Services.
Child Protective Services (CPS) seeks to ensure the safety of vulnerable children from suspected abuse, neglect or trafficking of minors. If confirmed, CPS may remove a child from the home. Its preference is for placement with relatives as opposed to foster care provided by strangers to maintain familial, environmental, and cultural ties.
“You don’t want the child to lose that connection,” Marzouka said. “Because that is their world.”
To prevent family ties from being cut, even temporarily, Preventive Services strives to strengthen affected families through domestic monitoring, motivational interviews, parental training/retraining, and family team meetings — strategies designed to expedite foster care discharge or circumvent foster care altogether.
Adult Services supports people in need of supervision (PINS) with a goal of preserving adult dignity. Currently, there are 30 adult guardian cases overseen by DCFS, a number which continues to climb.
Obstacles to the continuity of certain services remain.
Funding is a constant challenge. For example, childcare programs, the eligibility for which now includes working- and middle-class families, may run dry by 2025 unless the state provides relief.
Caseworker shortages present yet another challenge. To this end, the state has eased civil service requirements for positions such as social workers and case managers via NY HELPS, a program which may or may not be temporary.
According to Dutchess County’s Human Resources Commissioner Steven Rector, while specific data on caseworker shortages hasn’t been made available to his department yet, he concurs with Marzouka, who conveyed staff retention concerns.
“[These] titles are considered challenging to recruit for [and] with higher than average turnover,” Rector said.
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Kent unveils juried art show
Oct 16, 2024
Leila Hawken
Chilly rain sprinkles did not keep area art lovers away from the opening of the Kent Art Association’s Fall Juried Art Show on Sunday, Oct. 13. Judges for the event were association members Liz Maynard and Conrad Levenson. The show will continue until Saturday, Nov. 2, during the association's open hours.
Kent artist and long-term resident Carolyn Millstein (above) paused for a photo next to her piece, “Near Oakdale."
Natalia Zukerman
“SHELTER,” an art exhibit supporting The Gathering Place opened on Suday, Oct. 12, at the Royal Arcanum Building in Norfolk, Conn. Featuring works by fourteen area artists, proceeds from sales will benefit The Gathering Place based in Torrington, Conn., which provides essential services to the homeless across 26 towns in Litchfield County. Open weekdays, this vital resource offers everything from hot showers and laundry facilities to housing assistance. The exhibit runs through Nov. 24.
Autumn angling through lunar mud
Oct 16, 2024
Patrick L. Sullivan
I spent a couple days two weeks ago in Ulster County, New York, prowling the Esopus, around and below the Rail Trail pedestrian bridge in Boiceville.
The water temps were acceptable but on the sunny days approached the danger zone by mid-afternoon.
Water clarity was decent. Where it was murky, it was green murky, which is good, as opposed to brown murky, which means mud.
The flows were decent but definitely on the low side. We need rain badly, in the Hudson Valley and in the Northwest Corner.
And the area where I was had a decidedly lunar feel to the landscape, if the Moon has mud.
What worked: Junk flies.
What didn’t: Woolies, Tequilleys, unweighted streamers, Leadwing Coachmen, soft hackle wets in darker colors, orange-y caddis dries.
There were stonefly and isonychia casings on the rocks, but not a lot of them.
I was hoping for fat brown trout moving up into the river from the Ashokan Reservoir to spawn. Failing that, I was hoping for greedy rainbows looking to eat the brown trout eggs. It’s a little early for that sort of thing, but hey, I don’t make the rules.
No trout were disturbed, by me anyway.
Moment of triumph: Way down by where the stream enters the reservoir proper, and the lunar mud figures into the equation, I latched into three excellent smallies and one junior partner in a boom-boom space of about 45 minutes. What made this especially pleasant was that I had ventured forth with an 11 foot 4 weight single hand rod intending to either tight line nymphs or play with unweighted streamers such as Mickey Finns and Grey Ghosts.
Stonefly and isonychia casings on the rocks.Patrick L. Sullivan
At the last moment I stuck a small box containing mops and squirmy worms in the pack. This was a very good move and almost made up for the Dr. Boing-Boing moment when I realized I forgot the lanyard with the trout-sized tippet, forceps and clippers.
Reluctant to perform the Walk of Shame the half mile or so back to the car, I improvised. I had heavy tippet material, 0X through 2X, on a separate holder attached to my pack, and I found that with a little juju the cigar cutter worked as a clipper. What I could not approximate was the forceps, for squashing barbs, so I was limited to flies I had used before.
That turned out to be a two-fly rig, with the squirmy worm on a dropper up top and a green mop tied on a jig hook and with a bead head on point. Three of the smallies, including the fair-to-middling one, opted for the worm, and one bold soul took a flyer on the mop.
The commotion was such that an angler using spinning gear upstream wandered down to see what was up when I took a break. He then directed me to his companion, who was working a riffle further up with a fly rod.
Not wanting to hog the hot spot, and keenly aware that my wonky shoulder was sending out mild but unmistakable distress signals, I ceded my spot to angler number one and made my way upstream to angler number two.
He turned out to be from Millerton, N.Y. and had read Tangled Lines in the Millerton News.
He didn’t specifically say he was a fan but I assumed he was.. If he wasn’t then he was after I gave him a squirmy and a mop to try.
Note: As I peck this out on Sunday, Oct. 6, the 10-day forecast doesn’t look good for rain. If you take a shot at the very low Housatonic or Farmington rivers, your best bet is dawn to noon, long rods and longer leaders, clothing that blends into the background, and a high tolerance for frustration and agony of spirit.
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