The Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York (LASNNY) announced that Lloyd G. Grandy II, a shareholder at the Carlisle Law Firm, P.C., has joined their board of directors to represent St. Lawrence County.
“I am pleased to welcome Mr. Grandy to LASNNY’s board of directors. His background in law, experience with civil legal issues, and commitment to St. Lawrence County makes him an asset to our Board of Directors, and to the organization as a whole,” said LASNNY Executive Director Lillian Moy.
Ex-employees of the defunct St. Clare’s Hospital got a glimpse Tuesday into the legal mechanism through which the last remnants of their former employer are disappearing.
But it was only a glimpse, and it contained none of what they’ve been waiting to hear: that there’s some hope of restoring the pension benefits for 1,100 retirees whose monthly check has shrunk or disappeared.
About 30 pensioners filled the spectator seats of the courtroom for a brief hearing in the proposed dissolution of the St. Clare’s Corporation, the legacy entity of the financially troubled Schenectady hospital that state regulators shut down in 2008.
A state Supreme Court Justice on Tuesday gave the state Attorney General’s Charities Bureau until April 30 to pose its questions over the St. Clare’s pension collapse.
During a hearing at the Schenectady County Courthouse Donna Cole Paul, a lawyer with the AG’s office, asked Justice Vincent Versaci for time to uncover “additional documents on the financial wherewithal” of the St. Clare’s Corporation which oversaw the pension plan for about 1,100 former hospital workers.
There was major developments in a court room Tuesday regarding the St. Clare’s pension controversy that could rob hundreds of crucial money.
If the board members were hoping Tuesday would be the day the corporation was dissolved, they were disappointed. The state attorney general’s office said it wanted more time to gather documentation about the pensions finances and the court agreed.
The attorneys for the corporation and the board petitioned in state supreme court in Schenectady for dissolution.
Ten years on from the Great Recession and the need for foreclosure assistance is still strong. We discussed the need for more resources for foreclosure assistance programs with Geri Pomerantz, Managing Attorney for Foreclosure Prevention at the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York, and Kristin Brown, Vice President for Policy and Government Relations at Empire Justice Center.
Everybody knows April 15 as “Tax Day”, the date tax returns are due to be filed. Here’s another date to remember: April 9.
That day, the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York will hold its first-ever “Tax Problem Solving Day” at the legal center’s new headquarters in Albany’s West Hill from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Low-income taxpayers can get their taxes filed free of charge. And for the second time in the last year, Legal Aid will have a “Low Income Tax Clinic” at which volunteers will navigate clients through the confusing waters of tax season.
The Food Stamp Program was established in the 1930s as a food assistance initiative designed to help families.
In 1974, Congress required every state to offer Food Stamps.
In 2012, the program was renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in New York State.
Clinton County Nutrition Outreach and Education Program Coordinator Mandy Beaudin conducts free and confidential pre-screenings for SNAP.
“Part of what I do is just work with you and Social Services just to make sure you are getting the correct benefit amount, that they processed everything correctly and they are doing what they are supposed to be doing,” said Beaudin, who is a paralegal at the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern NY, which serves Clinton, Essex, Franklin and Hamilton counties.
The Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York has announced a pilot program to offer free Uber rides to need-qualified clients in Fulton, Montgomery and Schoharie counties.
LASNNY Executive Director Lillian Moy said the grand opening of the organization’s new location at 6 Market St. in Amsterdam Thursday provided the perfect time and location to announce the free transportation pilot program. She said the Amsterdam office will service income-qualified clients in Fulton, Montgomery and Schoharie counties.
“We wondered how our low-income clients get to court or to an administrative hearing if they don’t have transportation,” Moy said. “And we thought Amsterdam would be a good place to try this experiment.”
LASNNY opened its new location at 6 Market St., Amsterdam along with a new free ride pilot program to help provide transportation services to their clients.
“I feel very excited. The space is beautiful. It’s very welcoming and it’s respectful for clients,” said Lillian Moy, executive director of LASNNY. “We really believe our clients deserve to be served professional space and it’s great space for my colleagues. They are happy, so I am happy. The offices have more light and they’re spacious.”
As to how the free ride program works, Moy said each attorney at the Amsterdam location will have information about local resources available and will use those resources if possible. If not, attorneys will go to the managing attorney who will order a ride for clients using Uber.
Once seen as a boon to the city, the receipt of two state grants for the same Church Street reconstruction project from legislators of different parties has caused the start of the project to be delayed until at least 2020, according to some city officials.
City Engineer Richard Miller says Amsterdam will not begin a $1.9 million project to reconstruct Church Street between Cornell Street and Clizbe Avenue until the city receives state approval for both funding streams, and that won’t be this year. Miller said he is uncertain when final approval for both grants will be received.
