POUGHKEEPSIE – Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro has announced “Restarting Dutchess,” a multi-pronged initiative to appropriately re-open the County’s economy and Dutchess County Government operations once the coronavirus pandemic has simmered down.
As part of “Restarting Dutchess,” Molinaro has created four executive-level teams – partnerships between county government leaders, members of the county legislature and several countywide elected officials, to guide the direction of the initiative forward to achieve maximum efficiency and effectiveness.
Molinaro has been working with Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus and Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan to ensure coordination among the three counties for cohesive reopening efforts with twice weekly online meetings – one focused on county operations and the other focused on economic development.
The county leaders are lobbying the governor to let the three counties stand alone as a region rather than lump them into the lower Hudson Valley area including Westchester County.
While the focus of most county departments and officials has been on addressing the coronavirus pandemic, every Dutchess County Government department has remained operational to provide residents with essential services and programs, under the constraints of mandatory work at home orders and drastically limited in-person interaction to ensure proper social-distancing protocols are adhered to for safety. County departments have continued to respond to residents needs with online, phone or email services. This has included photo document submission via mobile app to process temporary assistance applications through the Department of Community & Family Services; new Telehealth services for the Stabilization Center; and the County Clerk’s office has recorded more than 1,260 online land document transactions. Dutchess County DMV has developed a new procedure to register vehicles through the mail at www.dutchessny.gov/newregistration.
