Hi David, This past month marked one year since the anniversary of the first COVID-19 case in Ulster County on March 8th. What followed that day was a year of challenge and crisis, but it also highlighted our resilience and sense of community. This past month, we made significant progress vaccinating residents, and took action on our Big Five priorities. I wanted to share some updates on this work:
Ramping up vaccine distribution
Ulster County has now vaccinated nearly 70,000 residents with over 38% of the population with at least one vaccine dose! After strongly advocating for a dedicated site here in Ulster County, New York State answered our request and stood up a state-run site at our County Fairgrounds to be more accessible to residents. This site, in addition to our county-led sites, will greatly bolster access to this life-saving vaccine for our residents and will allow us to continue to ramp up our vaccination efforts by being able to administer 2,500 doses a day.
Growing and diversifying the economy
Ulster County is now the first county in the U.S. to undertake a large-scale Universal Basic Income (UBI) pilot program, where we will provide much-needed economic relief directly to families across the count. In a month, the program received over 4,200 applicants. We are looking forward to seeing the impact on the lives of our residents and participating in the national conversation about the importance of creating this policy to help people in need across the country.
As part of our efforts to advance a people-center economy, we also announced a diverse set of plans to reimagine and redevelop the property at the former IBM site in Kingston. The expressions of interest represent a broad range of proposed uses for the former office building and surrounding property and demonstrate immediate opportunity to put the long-dormant site back to productive use, creating jobs and providing local tax revenues.
Advocating for affordable housing
This month, we announced Ulster County’s Housing Action Plan. We need to make sure that our frontline workers who have served our community during this pandemic from our teachers, our nurses and firefighters, restaurant and grocery workers— all the people who have kept us safe, fed, and well— can continue to live in the communities they serve. Housing is an economic development issue, a community health issue, and a moral issue. The report demonstrates that the housing market was in crisis even before the pandemic and carefully examines the data and lays out the steps we need to take to address it.
Ensuring justice for all
At every level of government, we must commit to meaningful, systemic reform and ensure that we provide equal justice for all of our residents. I was proud to sign the final plan from the Ulster County Justice and Reform Commission. The plan includes sections on ending mass incarceration, strengthening oversight and accountability, addressing systemic racial bias, and healing the relationship between the public and the police. | |
Best,  | |
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