Good afternoon and welcome!

I would like to start my remarks today by asking you to join me in a moment of silence as we remember all those that we have lost over this past year. A year certainly unlike any other we have endured.

Thank you!

Exactly one year ago today, the World Health Organization declared that the COVID-19 virus had created a worldwide public health emergency. The very next day, I stood here before you to deliver this annual message, a message that is typically the Chairman’s assessment of where we are as a County and as a community.

Historically, the Chairman would bore the daylights out of most of you with reports of progress over the previous year and then try desperately to inspire you with hopeful expectations of the good things to come in the current business year.

But last year was not your typical year. Instead, I opened my remarks with a reference to something that very few of us knew anything about, the Coronavirus. At that time, only six days had passed since the Governor issued an Executive Order declaring a statewide health emergency. None of us knew what to expect next, and I urged you all to be calm and vigilant in your efforts to take preventive measures and to avoid exposing yourself, or others, to the virus. A message that I have continued to share with you each-and-every week since.

I closed that short opening paragraph before moving on to the usual reporting of county government activities by asking you to do your part, and to follow the advice of medical professionals, and I assured you at that time, that if we did, we would all come through this with minimal impact to our lives and our communities. As it turned out, that was not one of my more prophetic moments.

We all know what happened next so I won’t burden you with a play-by-play recap of a year that most of us would like to forget. I would however, like to remind you of what I think was the most important development to come out of this life altering event.

When I think back about all that has occurred since I last stood here to address you, I am reminded of the words of Vince Lombardi, when he said “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”

As I stand here today, there is no question in my mind that we embodied Coach Lombardi’s thoughts, as a county, and as a community, we came together, determined to do our best, and in some cases even beyond. From every corner of our 1,000 square miles, friends, neighbors and strangers, young and old, rich and poor, people we had never even met before stepped up to help those in need. Businesses large and small reorganized, re-tooled and chipped in to find solutions not just for local needs but in some cases to meet the pressing worldwide demands that continued to grow under a once in a century public health crisis.

I encourage each of you to remember the year 2020 not as the year when schools and businesses were suddenly closed with no real plan as to what would come next. Or the year when your prom, your sport season, your wedding or any one of the hundreds of other things that we have always taken for granted as everyday life were no longer an option for you.

Instead, as hard as it may be, I challenge you to remember 2020 as the year when your neighbors, men, women and in some cases, children, cooked for people they didn’t even know, when they sewed masks and other protective clothing for our doctors, nurses and first responders who day-by-day, at their own peril, stood on the front lines doing whatever needed to be done to serve and protect the rest of us from the scourge that was upon us.

Remember it as the year when we came together as a community while under orders to individually stay apart. Remember it as the year when in reality, in your soul, in your heart, the things you gained out-weighed the things you missed. The pandemic has brought us closer. Neighbors, friends and families built, strengthened and renewed relationships as frustration and uncertainty threatened to leave us despondent.

While our students, our parents, our business community and others continue to struggle with the changes and challenges we have faced, we now find ourselves facing them together, supporting each other in ways like never before.

As awful as it has been, in many ways we are better now than we were before, and we should recognize that as we continue to work together to rebuild and reignite our local economy.

There is much to do in this new year, we must remain vigilant in our efforts to protect ourselves and those around us, but at the same time we must work harder than ever to ensure that the needs of our residents are met to the best of our abilities. Local government services will continue, our efforts to find state and federal money for priority projects will intensify, and our partnerships with other governments will grow as we seek to solve the issues before us.

Water and wastewater concerns continue to torment us as does the ever growing need to address the lack of adequate broadband service throughout the county. The broadband issue is particularly troubling for us as it limits access between students and teachers, doctors and patients, employers and remote staff and in general, the greater public and the growing reliance on online services of every sort.

We currently have a very in-depth study underway with our partners at the Central NY Regional Planning and Development Board that will help us better identify the need for these improvements and hopefully make us more competitive for the funds to address it. There is a growing trend for governments to address this issue as they come to the realization that the private sector providers will not.

Also trending, not just here but throughout the country, is the movement for reform in the law enforcement community. I am pleased to say that Oswego County has been in the forefront of this effort. Continuous improvement is the foundation upon which the sheriff and his team base their day-to-day policy decisions and operating procedures, and I appreciate that we have a Legislature that supports an aggressive agenda to help modernize our sheriff’s department as they continue to work harder to protect our residents and employees.

We are also encouraged that the federal government has recognized that the COVID pandemic put a serious financial strain on local governments and we are hopeful that the recently announced stimulus funds will help solve those financial pressures while also allowing us work with our respective local governments to better prepare for future environmental or economic emergencies. Now is the time to focus on strengthening and diversifying our business community through strategic investments in critical infrastructure that will subsequently inspire growth throughout the county.

2021 will undoubtedly be a better year than 2020; how could it not be? We still have challenges before us, but I have no doubt that we will continue to recognize that “we are all in this together.” A phrase echoed throughout these last 12 months. A phrase that still rings true and one that inspires a sense of unity, teamwork, and collaboration.

To close, I would like to take about five more minutes of your time to play four short videos for you. Videos we produced with our partners last year to jog the memories of our residents and remind them about what really makes Oswego County special, four key elements, our strength of community, our determination to never give up, our natural inclination to work together and our demonstrated ability to succeed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3DIWyuZNzs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riBZ2yFOHUw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw1_SitsW4o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRXsYt0FTHM

Four words: Strength, Hope, Collaboration and Perseverance. I think we saw them all demonstrated last year, and I hope that we will all continue to be motivated by the greater sense of community that came from it.

I look forward to working with all of you to come out of this situation even stronger than before and more focused on our efforts to make Oswego County an even greater place to live, work and raise a family.

Thank you, God bless you all, God bless Oswego County and God bless America!