Weekday top 5: Auburn dog control officer retiring, Cayuga County employees pan job cuts
- Ë®¹ûÅÉAV staff
- Updated
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Ë®¹ûÅÉAV's top five most-read stories of the work week.Â
- Kelly Rocheleau
- Updated
The Auburn Police Department has provided more details on an accident last week that injured a child.
Auburn Police Chief James Slayton told Ë®¹ûÅÉAV on Wednesday that a male 14-year-old on a homemade "motorbike-style" vehicle crashed into the rear of a parked car near Seymour and Washington streets at about 4:25 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21. The child sustained severe but non-life-threatening injuries to his hip and leg, as well as facial and wrist fractures.Â
The child was transported to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse. Slayton said he did not know the teen's current status or if they are still in the hospital.
- David Wilcox
- Updated
AUBURN — Brian Bell and his family have a roof over their head. They have a bed and a bathroom. But they don't have a home.Â
Like many local homeless people in the Auburn area, Brian and his family have been housed in hotels by the Cayuga County Department of Social Services since September 2023.Â
Brian, 52, his wife, Jennifer, 46, and their son, Brian, are currently living at the Rodeway Inn in Weedsport.
When Brian and Jennifer spoke with Ë®¹ûÅÉAV in September, they were living at the Cayuga Inn at the Finger Lakes in Auburn, formerly a Days Inn. Before that, they lived at the Auburn Inn.
They described the conditions at the hotels as substandard: stained linens and carpets, unpleasant smells, signs of drug use.
Their descriptions match those of other homeless people interviewed by Ë®¹ûÅÉAV in recent months, as well as observations from visits to the hotels and pictures provided by occupants.
But the biggest problem with living in a hotel room, Brian and Jennifer said, is just that — living in a hotel room.
"You can't live out of a microwave and minifridge," he said.
The Bells became homeless because they stopped paying rent on their last apartment after going without heat for six months, Brian said. Finding a new one has been hard. Many landlords charge up to $20 to conduct background checks, an emerging practice confirmed to Ë®¹ûÅÉAV by several homeless service providers.
"How can I set money aside for a month's rent if it's taken me $400 to look at different apartments?" he said.Â
Brian's livelihood has been decimated for the last nine years by a degenerative spine and nerve condition caused by a work injury, he said. He has 10 seizures a day, and is considered terminal.
A surgical procedure could have helped, he said, but it came with a 60% risk he wouldn't be able to walk again. Instead, he's been medicating with cannabis. He wants to be able to take care of his wife of 27 years and their son, who has autism and schizophrenia. In turn, she serves as her husband's nurse sometimes.
Also helping Brian are two emotional support dogs. They rouse him from seizures, he said, and take him home when he has "amnesia moments." But they've not been welcome with hotel managers. They're not certified service dogs, and though he claims otherwise, that doesn't give them the same legal protections.
The county's commissioner of social services, Christine Bianco, told Ë®¹ûÅÉAV that emotional support dogs and other pets are common among the people her department houses in hotels.
"Having any pet live in a small room is tough for people to be living there, and having it be kept up the way it needs to be," she said. "That's why this kind of housing is not ideal."Â
Another reason why housing homeless people in hotels is not ideal, Bianco said, is the cost to the county. It $2,567,000 to rent rooms to 455 adults and 175 children last year, which amounted to $1.3 million after state reimbursements. She said the cost of rooms this year will be at least as much, if not more.Â
The Department of Social Services has received complaints about the hotels like the ones voiced by the Bells, Bianco said. Staff shares them with management and code enforcement.Â
Other complaints the department can't do anything about, Bianco said, because hotels are ultimately businesses that can make their own rules. For the Bells, those complaints include the use of an outdoor common space at the Cayuga Inn at the Finger Lakes. Management closed it late in the summer, Brian said.
"We had a community," he said. "We'd have picnics to save money, and kept the kids out of trouble."
Instead, management asked the homeless people housed at the hotel to use a smaller, enclosed area as their common space. It made Brian feel like they were "prisoners," he said. Bianco said the change was a response to neighbors who about the hotel's occupants at the Aug. 22 meeting of Auburn City Council.
Despite what those neighbors may think, Brian said, he and his family aren't bad people. They've simply fallen on hard times — and hope to find a home that isn't limited to a hotel room.
"I got here doing the right things," he said. "I just didn't come out the right way."
- David Wilcox
- Updated
Two months after the owner of the Auburn Schine Theater told city officials its rehabilitation would move forward in a more transparent manner, the city has resumed legal action to seize it.
On Nov. 7 in Cayuga County Supreme Court, the city filed a summons requiring owner Schines Theater LLC to serve notice within 30 days that the historic art deco theater is not abandoned.
The summons was served that day, giving the Schine owner until the end of the first week of December to respond. If not, the summons says, the city will move to take possession of the theater.
The summons follows a July certificate of abandonment the city posted in the door of the theater. According to the certificate, the city issued it because the theater is uninhabitable and "structurally unsound," because it illegally remains open and unguarded, and because the 16 South St. property has several dangerous code violations that haven't been addressed for more than a year.Â
The city removed the posting, and paused its legal action, after Schines Theater LLC's Bryan Bowers responded by meeting with city and state officials in September. He has not responded to the city since then, Auburn Mayor Jimmy Giannettino told Ë®¹ûÅÉAV on Friday. That's why Giannettino does not intend to pause the city's legal action again, no matter how Bowers responds this time.
"I'm one of five (members of City Council), but I'm personally past that point," Giannettino said. "We've given him every opportunity, and been very patient and understanding."
Giannettino also noted the $20,977.98 in city, county and school district taxes that Bowers owes on the theater property. Another source of frustration, the mayor said, is the $2.2 million in unclaimed state grants the Schine project has qualified for. City staff worked hard applying for them, he continued, and the grants remaining unclaimed after more than five years reflects negatively on Auburn.
Ideally, Giannettino said, the city will find a buyer for the Schine, and the $1 million Restore New York and $1.2 million CNY Regional Economic Development Council grants will transfer to them. Empire State Development's Dan Kolinski, who attended the September meeting, has told city officials that is a possibility. Otherwise, the city would try to transfer the grants to another Auburn project.Â
The city's move to take possession of the Schine from Bowers comes after about five years of inactivity there by the owner of East Syracuse firm Bowers Development. He oversaw the remediation of the theater's asbestos shortly after buying it for $15,000 from the Cayuga County Arts Council in 2018, supported by $800,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds allocated by the city.
Since then, visible improvements to the theater have been minimal. Bowers blamed an inability to secure bank financing during a presentation to Auburn City Council in June 2022, which Giannettino said was understandable due to COVID-19. The developer then said he would restore the theater's marquee, and return to City Council for another public update, that fall. But neither has yet to happen.
Bowers has said he would rehabilitate the Schine into a multipurpose event and entertainment facility at a cost of $6 million. He did not respond to a request for comment by Ë®¹ûÅÉAV.
The developer's troubles in Auburn join ones in other central New York cities. Utica's code enforcement office has him tickets due to similar inactivity at historic properties he owns there, and Syracuse is seeking a court order to take over from Bowers the demolition of a brick warehouse there. this week that he has not complied with orders to demolish it earlier.
- Robert Harding
- Updated
As Kristine Lytle spoke at the Cayuga County Legislature meeting Tuesday, she asked Erica Johnston to stand up.Â
Johnston, who has worked at the county Department of Motor Vehicles since 2019, is one of the two DMV employees whose jobs would be cut if the 2025 budget proposal is approved.Â
In June, Johnston's husband died of cancer. Now, she is raising the couple's two children while facing the loss of her job as a DMV cashier.Â
"I don't know about you, but that is not sitting well with me," said Lytle, one of Johnston's co-workers at the DMV. "If there is a time when somebody needs their community to stand behind them, this is the time — not just for Erica, but for all of those (employees). They all have a similar story."Â
Lytle was one of several county employees who spoke out against the proposed 2025 budget cuts. The tentative budget would eliminate 23 positions from 13 departments. Full- and part-time employees would be affected.Â
The county Department of Social Services would lose five positions, including a senior caseworker and two part-time caseworkers, in the budget.Â
Deborah Snow is one of the caseworkers who may lose their job. She is retired, but works part-time at the department.
"You may think part-time is part work, but it's not," she said. "I have the same caseload as the full-time people. The only difference is my cases are mostly (in Auburn)."Â
Rebecca Allen, who is also employed as a caseworker in the Department of Social Services, detailed her working conditions while being a single mom struggling to pay her bills. She has 25 cases and drove more than 200 miles this week to provide assistance.Â
If Snow's job is slashed, Allen said that would add five more cases to her workload.Â
"This is not OK that you are laying these guys off," she added. "This is not OK that we are doing this."Â
The budget would cut three positions from the county Highway Department and two each from the mental health clinic and planning department. Eight departments would lose one position, including a full-time detective in the sheriff's office and a full-time public health assistant in the health department.Â
When Cayuga County Legislature Chairwoman Aileen McNabb-Coleman presented the proposed $192 million spending plan, she outlined several budget pressures. These included pay raises that are part of contracts ratified by the county Legislature in 2023.Â
Peter Thomas, who is the DMV supervisor and serves as first vice president of the local Civil Service Employees Association representing county workers, chided McNabb-Coleman for saying the contractual pay raises contribute to the budget crunch.
"This is the thanks that we actually get — to dismiss current employees and to blame the remaining employees for having to cut these jobs because we dare, through hard-fought negotiations, expect to get a raise in our salaries to help offset the increased cost of living that continually rises," Thomas said.Â
Earlier in his remarks, Thomas shared a quote from President Joe Biden. Over the years, Biden has said, "Don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value."Â
"Looking at this budget proposal, I can tell you you do not value the employees of this county," Thomas said.Â
The county Legislature voted Tuesday to approve several amendments to the proposed budget, including one that would delay layoffs until April 1. Legislators are hopeful they can find alternatives to eliminating those positions so the employees can keep their jobs.Â
- Kelly Rocheleau
- Updated
Auburn's longtime dog control officer is set to retire, and the city is hoping to receive bids to replace him.
The city is now for dog control and kennel services within city limits for 2025, with an option to renew annually for three more years. Proposals are due by noon Thursday, Dec. 12.
The contractor would provide the services required by New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets law and local dog control law, and report to the city clerk's office.Â
Those who complete a form on the city's website, , can view its full request for proposals.
The request was issued because the city's dog control officer for 19 years, Finger Lakes Dog Protection Agency President Carl Collier III, is retiring Dec. 31.Â
City Clerk Chuck Mason praised Collier's dedication over the years, noting he is also the dog control officer for several other municipalities.
"It's a big loss for the city of Auburn. Carl has served us very well," Mason said.Â
"He has, probably more oftentimes than not, gone above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to looking out for the dogs of not only Auburn but the greater Auburn area."
While Collier will be hard to replace, Mason said, he has earned his retirement.Â
"He's served us for a very long time, and it's time for Carl to take care of himself as effectively as he's taken care of the community," Mason said.
Collier told Ë®¹ûÅÉAV that while he would like to continue working, it has been harder in recent years for him to meet the job's physical demands.
He said it has also been more dangerous — not because of the animals, but because of people he has encountered and their "total disrespect."
On the other hand, Collier's love for animals, and particularly dogs, has endured since he was a child. He's been involved with animal and dog control for more than 40 years, working from 1980 to 1986 as the humane law enforcement officer for the Finger Lakes SCPA of Central New York (then the Cayuga County SPCA). He started his dog protection agency in 1988.
The city has been great to work with, Collier said. He also praised his daughter Jennifer, saying he's been continually impressed by her throughout her 25 years working at the agency.
"If she can't do something, it probably can't be done," he said.Â
Collier's other children, grandchildren and six younger brothers have all been involved at the agency as well, making it a family affair. So has his wife, Thadine, who is retiring as the county's rabies coordinator at the end of the year. He feels the agency's work has helped make the county safer and reduced animal euthanasia, along with groups like the SPCA and Auburn Community Cats TNR.
Collier said he hasn't fully processed his retirement yet, but he's glad he has been able to serve the community for so long.
"I am proud of what we have accomplished," he said.
More like this...
- Kelly Rocheleau
The Auburn Police Department has provided more details on an accident last week that injured a child.
Auburn Police Chief James Slayton told Ë®¹ûÅÉAV on Wednesday that a male 14-year-old on a homemade "motorbike-style" vehicle crashed into the rear of a parked car near Seymour and Washington streets at about 4:25 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21. The child sustained severe but non-life-threatening injuries to his hip and leg, as well as facial and wrist fractures.Â
The child was transported to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse. Slayton said he did not know the teen's current status or if they are still in the hospital.
- David Wilcox
AUBURN — Brian Bell and his family have a roof over their head. They have a bed and a bathroom. But they don't have a home.Â
Like many local homeless people in the Auburn area, Brian and his family have been housed in hotels by the Cayuga County Department of Social Services since September 2023.Â
Brian, 52, his wife, Jennifer, 46, and their son, Brian, are currently living at the Rodeway Inn in Weedsport.
When Brian and Jennifer spoke with Ë®¹ûÅÉAV in September, they were living at the Cayuga Inn at the Finger Lakes in Auburn, formerly a Days Inn. Before that, they lived at the Auburn Inn.
They described the conditions at the hotels as substandard: stained linens and carpets, unpleasant smells, signs of drug use.
Their descriptions match those of other homeless people interviewed by Ë®¹ûÅÉAV in recent months, as well as observations from visits to the hotels and pictures provided by occupants.
But the biggest problem with living in a hotel room, Brian and Jennifer said, is just that — living in a hotel room.
"You can't live out of a microwave and minifridge," he said.
The Bells became homeless because they stopped paying rent on their last apartment after going without heat for six months, Brian said. Finding a new one has been hard. Many landlords charge up to $20 to conduct background checks, an emerging practice confirmed to Ë®¹ûÅÉAV by several homeless service providers.
"How can I set money aside for a month's rent if it's taken me $400 to look at different apartments?" he said.Â
Brian's livelihood has been decimated for the last nine years by a degenerative spine and nerve condition caused by a work injury, he said. He has 10 seizures a day, and is considered terminal.
A surgical procedure could have helped, he said, but it came with a 60% risk he wouldn't be able to walk again. Instead, he's been medicating with cannabis. He wants to be able to take care of his wife of 27 years and their son, who has autism and schizophrenia. In turn, she serves as her husband's nurse sometimes.
Also helping Brian are two emotional support dogs. They rouse him from seizures, he said, and take him home when he has "amnesia moments." But they've not been welcome with hotel managers. They're not certified service dogs, and though he claims otherwise, that doesn't give them the same legal protections.
The county's commissioner of social services, Christine Bianco, told Ë®¹ûÅÉAV that emotional support dogs and other pets are common among the people her department houses in hotels.
"Having any pet live in a small room is tough for people to be living there, and having it be kept up the way it needs to be," she said. "That's why this kind of housing is not ideal."Â
Another reason why housing homeless people in hotels is not ideal, Bianco said, is the cost to the county. It $2,567,000 to rent rooms to 455 adults and 175 children last year, which amounted to $1.3 million after state reimbursements. She said the cost of rooms this year will be at least as much, if not more.Â
The Department of Social Services has received complaints about the hotels like the ones voiced by the Bells, Bianco said. Staff shares them with management and code enforcement.Â
Other complaints the department can't do anything about, Bianco said, because hotels are ultimately businesses that can make their own rules. For the Bells, those complaints include the use of an outdoor common space at the Cayuga Inn at the Finger Lakes. Management closed it late in the summer, Brian said.
"We had a community," he said. "We'd have picnics to save money, and kept the kids out of trouble."
Instead, management asked the homeless people housed at the hotel to use a smaller, enclosed area as their common space. It made Brian feel like they were "prisoners," he said. Bianco said the change was a response to neighbors who about the hotel's occupants at the Aug. 22 meeting of Auburn City Council.
Despite what those neighbors may think, Brian said, he and his family aren't bad people. They've simply fallen on hard times — and hope to find a home that isn't limited to a hotel room.
"I got here doing the right things," he said. "I just didn't come out the right way."
- David Wilcox
Two months after the owner of the Auburn Schine Theater told city officials its rehabilitation would move forward in a more transparent manner, the city has resumed legal action to seize it.
On Nov. 7 in Cayuga County Supreme Court, the city filed a summons requiring owner Schines Theater LLC to serve notice within 30 days that the historic art deco theater is not abandoned.
The summons was served that day, giving the Schine owner until the end of the first week of December to respond. If not, the summons says, the city will move to take possession of the theater.
The summons follows a July certificate of abandonment the city posted in the door of the theater. According to the certificate, the city issued it because the theater is uninhabitable and "structurally unsound," because it illegally remains open and unguarded, and because the 16 South St. property has several dangerous code violations that haven't been addressed for more than a year.Â
The city removed the posting, and paused its legal action, after Schines Theater LLC's Bryan Bowers responded by meeting with city and state officials in September. He has not responded to the city since then, Auburn Mayor Jimmy Giannettino told Ë®¹ûÅÉAV on Friday. That's why Giannettino does not intend to pause the city's legal action again, no matter how Bowers responds this time.
"I'm one of five (members of City Council), but I'm personally past that point," Giannettino said. "We've given him every opportunity, and been very patient and understanding."
Giannettino also noted the $20,977.98 in city, county and school district taxes that Bowers owes on the theater property. Another source of frustration, the mayor said, is the $2.2 million in unclaimed state grants the Schine project has qualified for. City staff worked hard applying for them, he continued, and the grants remaining unclaimed after more than five years reflects negatively on Auburn.
Ideally, Giannettino said, the city will find a buyer for the Schine, and the $1 million Restore New York and $1.2 million CNY Regional Economic Development Council grants will transfer to them. Empire State Development's Dan Kolinski, who attended the September meeting, has told city officials that is a possibility. Otherwise, the city would try to transfer the grants to another Auburn project.Â
The city's move to take possession of the Schine from Bowers comes after about five years of inactivity there by the owner of East Syracuse firm Bowers Development. He oversaw the remediation of the theater's asbestos shortly after buying it for $15,000 from the Cayuga County Arts Council in 2018, supported by $800,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds allocated by the city.
Since then, visible improvements to the theater have been minimal. Bowers blamed an inability to secure bank financing during a presentation to Auburn City Council in June 2022, which Giannettino said was understandable due to COVID-19. The developer then said he would restore the theater's marquee, and return to City Council for another public update, that fall. But neither has yet to happen.
Bowers has said he would rehabilitate the Schine into a multipurpose event and entertainment facility at a cost of $6 million. He did not respond to a request for comment by Ë®¹ûÅÉAV.
The developer's troubles in Auburn join ones in other central New York cities. Utica's code enforcement office has him tickets due to similar inactivity at historic properties he owns there, and Syracuse is seeking a court order to take over from Bowers the demolition of a brick warehouse there. this week that he has not complied with orders to demolish it earlier.
- Robert Harding
As Kristine Lytle spoke at the Cayuga County Legislature meeting Tuesday, she asked Erica Johnston to stand up.Â
Johnston, who has worked at the county Department of Motor Vehicles since 2019, is one of the two DMV employees whose jobs would be cut if the 2025 budget proposal is approved.Â
In June, Johnston's husband died of cancer. Now, she is raising the couple's two children while facing the loss of her job as a DMV cashier.Â
"I don't know about you, but that is not sitting well with me," said Lytle, one of Johnston's co-workers at the DMV. "If there is a time when somebody needs their community to stand behind them, this is the time — not just for Erica, but for all of those (employees). They all have a similar story."Â
Lytle was one of several county employees who spoke out against the proposed 2025 budget cuts. The tentative budget would eliminate 23 positions from 13 departments. Full- and part-time employees would be affected.Â
The county Department of Social Services would lose five positions, including a senior caseworker and two part-time caseworkers, in the budget.Â
Deborah Snow is one of the caseworkers who may lose their job. She is retired, but works part-time at the department.
"You may think part-time is part work, but it's not," she said. "I have the same caseload as the full-time people. The only difference is my cases are mostly (in Auburn)."Â
Rebecca Allen, who is also employed as a caseworker in the Department of Social Services, detailed her working conditions while being a single mom struggling to pay her bills. She has 25 cases and drove more than 200 miles this week to provide assistance.Â
If Snow's job is slashed, Allen said that would add five more cases to her workload.Â
"This is not OK that you are laying these guys off," she added. "This is not OK that we are doing this."Â
The budget would cut three positions from the county Highway Department and two each from the mental health clinic and planning department. Eight departments would lose one position, including a full-time detective in the sheriff's office and a full-time public health assistant in the health department.Â
When Cayuga County Legislature Chairwoman Aileen McNabb-Coleman presented the proposed $192 million spending plan, she outlined several budget pressures. These included pay raises that are part of contracts ratified by the county Legislature in 2023.Â
Peter Thomas, who is the DMV supervisor and serves as first vice president of the local Civil Service Employees Association representing county workers, chided McNabb-Coleman for saying the contractual pay raises contribute to the budget crunch.
"This is the thanks that we actually get — to dismiss current employees and to blame the remaining employees for having to cut these jobs because we dare, through hard-fought negotiations, expect to get a raise in our salaries to help offset the increased cost of living that continually rises," Thomas said.Â
Earlier in his remarks, Thomas shared a quote from President Joe Biden. Over the years, Biden has said, "Don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value."Â
"Looking at this budget proposal, I can tell you you do not value the employees of this county," Thomas said.Â
The county Legislature voted Tuesday to approve several amendments to the proposed budget, including one that would delay layoffs until April 1. Legislators are hopeful they can find alternatives to eliminating those positions so the employees can keep their jobs.Â
- Kelly Rocheleau
Auburn's longtime dog control officer is set to retire, and the city is hoping to receive bids to replace him.
The city is now for dog control and kennel services within city limits for 2025, with an option to renew annually for three more years. Proposals are due by noon Thursday, Dec. 12.
The contractor would provide the services required by New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets law and local dog control law, and report to the city clerk's office.Â
Those who complete a form on the city's website, , can view its full request for proposals.
The request was issued because the city's dog control officer for 19 years, Finger Lakes Dog Protection Agency President Carl Collier III, is retiring Dec. 31.Â
City Clerk Chuck Mason praised Collier's dedication over the years, noting he is also the dog control officer for several other municipalities.
"It's a big loss for the city of Auburn. Carl has served us very well," Mason said.Â
"He has, probably more oftentimes than not, gone above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to looking out for the dogs of not only Auburn but the greater Auburn area."
While Collier will be hard to replace, Mason said, he has earned his retirement.Â
"He's served us for a very long time, and it's time for Carl to take care of himself as effectively as he's taken care of the community," Mason said.
Collier told Ë®¹ûÅÉAV that while he would like to continue working, it has been harder in recent years for him to meet the job's physical demands.
He said it has also been more dangerous — not because of the animals, but because of people he has encountered and their "total disrespect."
On the other hand, Collier's love for animals, and particularly dogs, has endured since he was a child. He's been involved with animal and dog control for more than 40 years, working from 1980 to 1986 as the humane law enforcement officer for the Finger Lakes SCPA of Central New York (then the Cayuga County SPCA). He started his dog protection agency in 1988.
The city has been great to work with, Collier said. He also praised his daughter Jennifer, saying he's been continually impressed by her throughout her 25 years working at the agency.
"If she can't do something, it probably can't be done," he said.Â
Collier's other children, grandchildren and six younger brothers have all been involved at the agency as well, making it a family affair. So has his wife, Thadine, who is retiring as the county's rabies coordinator at the end of the year. He feels the agency's work has helped make the county safer and reduced animal euthanasia, along with groups like the SPCA and Auburn Community Cats TNR.
Collier said he hasn't fully processed his retirement yet, but he's glad he has been able to serve the community for so long.
"I am proud of what we have accomplished," he said.
