Serino delivers annual State of the County
Dutchess Executive Sue Serino announced during her State of the County address on Tuesday (March 11) a range of initiatives, including a mental health program for children and an outreach worker for veterans.
Serino said the county is in discussions with the Children’s Home of Poughkeepsie and the state Office of Mental Health to open temporary housing where children and teenagers can receive services. Among the record number of people using the county’s Stabilization Center in Poughkeepsie in 2024 were a “significant number” of youth under age 18, she said.
She also said a newly hired outreach worker will be assigned to help veterans and their families secure benefits and find housing and jobs. Last year, the Office of Veterans Affairs helped a veteran’s widow receive $1,600 in monthly benefits.
“Tonight is more than policies and programs; it’s about people,” Serino said during her address at John Jay High School in Hopewell Junction. “At the heart of every decision that we make, every dollar that we invest, every initiative that we launch, there’s a life that we are striving to improve.”
Regarding a shortage of childcare options, Serino said a new grant program will help in-home providers pay for startup and ongoing expenses such as safety upgrades and licensing fees. That support will create more slots, she said. Dutchess has 7,725 slots — one for every 3.6 children under 6 years old and one for every 8.5 children between 6 and 12.
A workforce training program for home-based childcare providers is in the works, she said, created in partnership with the Mid-Hudson Discovery Museum and the Child Care Council of Dutchess and Putnam. Another new program will provide free babysitter training.
Serino also announced a strategy to address a shortage of emergency medical services personnel: a Paramedic Academy to bolster Dutchess Community College’s EMT/paramedic program with scholarships, stipends and specialized training. “We’ve talked with students in the EMT program at DCC,” she said. “They want more opportunities to advance.”
At the Office for the Aging, an ambassador will help seniors and their families find services and a program will teach caregivers how to intervene when seniors have a hoarding problem. The county is also planning a job fair for seniors and using a $225,000 grant to expand a program that funds repairs to seniors’ homes. “It’s so important that they have the support they need to stay active, connected and live the lives they deserve,” Serino said.
She said older farmers who want to retire can have their operations preserved through Connecting Farmers, a new program to match them with young people or veterans interested in agriculture.
Other farmer initiatives include a youth gardening grant to introduce children to agriculture and food production and the purchase of a refrigerated box truck to distribute 100,000 pounds of produce annually to food pantries.
In addition to distributing money from the county’s Housing Trust Fund, which in 2023 awarded $1.575 million to an affordable housing project at 2 Cross St. in Beacon, Dutchess is planning to map sewer and water infrastructure to identify the best areas for new housing.
