Fracking, budget and COVID tests

In a rare 2-1 vote, the Wayne County Commissioners have decided to join a lawsuit challenging the Delaware River Basin Commission’s moratorium on fracking. The legal action was filed earlier this month by Republican state Sens. Lisa Baker and Gene Yaw. The PA Senate Republican Caucus and Damascus Township are also plaintiffs in the case. They say that the DRBC has overstepped its own authority, and taken away residents’ property rights without compensation, by not allowing fracking in the Delaware River basin. Wayne Commissioner Jocelyn Cramer, the only Democrat on the board, cast the only vote in opposition to joining the case.

A free COVID-19 testing clinic is taking place in Wayne County this weekend until Monday. Located at the former Rusty Palmer’s plaza on the Texas Palmyra highway—the PA Department of Health’s pop-up clinic requires no appointment, and is open to non-Wayne County residents as well. The clinic has the capacity to run about 450 tests a day, and will be done on a first-come first-serve basis. The clinic is running from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day.

And PA Gov. Tom Wolf outlined his 2021 agenda Thursday, with priorities like human and financial recovery from COVID-19, investing in infrastructure, raising the minimum wage to $12 with a path to $15, and legalizing cannabis. In response, leadership in the Republican State House said that the governor should have no priorities but getting Pennsylvanians vaccinated.

Phishing scam, ethics board and tourism

Last week, The New York State Department of State and the Division of Consumer Protection warned New Yorkers of a new email phishing scheme that has been arriving in New York State residents’ inboxes. These illegitimate emails ask recipients to verify their profile to avoid experiencing delays and future problems in renewing their license. The messages link to a non-listed URL. Anyone who receives such an email is advised to delete it right away.  

District 6 legislator Luis Alvarez is not facing disciplinary action, despite accusations that he verbally abused county health commissioner Stephanie Brown. He allegedly made the abusive comments last spring, angered by the treatment his wife was receiving in a county nursing home. The Sullivan County Ethics Board found Alvarez guilty of these accusations, but the Sullivan County Legislature decided on Thursday to accept the board’s findings while taking no further action.

And this past Wednesday, several Sullivan County legislators met with representatives of the Sullivan County Visitors Association to discuss renegotiating their contract. In a statement, Legislature Chairman Robert Doherty said that the Legislature will terminate its current contract with the association, giving the two parties 60 days to hammer out an agreement. However, at a meeting on Thursday, the Sullivan County Legislature tabled the decision to terminate the contract for 30 days. At that meeting, Doherty expressed concern that the county’s tourism agency was only promoting its members, not the county as a whole.