County bolsters senior program, moves to ban texting/driving

Niagara Wheatfield Tribune, June 25, 2009

Niagara County lawmakers provided $20,000 to help launch “Complete Senior Care,” an effort to provide seniors with medical and social services while they remain in their own homes, at last week’s meeting of the County Legislature.

The program, a joint effort by the Health Association of Niagara County Inc. and the Dale Association, seeks to offer frail seniors an alternative to being placed in nursing homes. It also promises to create as many as 75 new jobs over the next five years.

Participants will attend a day center two to three days a week for meals, activities, medical services and rehabilitation therapies. A physician, nurse practitioner and other medical staff will be available on site at a clinic operated by Mount St. Mary’s Hospital and Health Center. HANCI has already undertaken $1.8 million in renovations at its Main Street, Niagara Falls facility to create a day center and clinic that will serve as the hub for the program.

The funding comes from Niagara County’s share of Seneca Niagara Casino revenues.

•In other action, the Legislature moved to make texting and driving an offense inside the county.

The ban, which still requires a public hearing and second vote of the Legislature to become a local law, would impose a $150 fine on motorists found to be sending text messages on mobile phones while behind the wheel.

A public hearing on the texting law proposal will be held July 28.