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Oct. 21, 2017
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• EDITION •
ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS LOOK TO STEFANIK AS SHIELD AGAINST E.P.A. CUTS Repeal of Clean Power Plan could lead to return of acid rain and smog in Adirondacks, say critics
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REGIONAL COUNCIL EYES $21 MILLION FOR PRIORITY pg. 11 PROJECTS COUNTY BRINGS MEALS TO OVER 19K THIS SUMMER
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Justice for all: North Country vet lobbies Congress for help with hep C bill Danny Kaifetz is seeking federal legislation giving all vets access to treatment for disease that plagues veteran population By Keith Lobdell
KEESEVILLE | Danny Kaifetz knows all too well what it feels like to have a diagnosis and be told you cannot be treated. “I’m cured — the VA saved my life,” Kaifetz said of his ordeal with hepatitis C between 2011 and 2016. “I want to make sure others get help before it is too late, and the VA can do this and wipe out hep C in 2-3 years — they have all the tools, money and support they need to eradicate this from the veteran population.”
» Hep C Bill Cont. on pg. 16
STA FF W RITER
Local pastor recounts Texas relief efforts “It was encouraging to see the community come together and support each other,” says Josh Bennett By Pete DeMola EDITOR
Members of Life Church in Elizabethtown, New York spent five days in Houston this month aiding in Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. Photo provided
ELIZABETHTOWN | It’s 85 miles from Beaumont, Texas to Houston. On the drive, Josh Bennett gazed out at the devastated landscape that seemed to scroll on forever, a tangled thread of destroyed houses, piles of debris and forlorn homeowners. “There were just piles of rubble the whole way,” Bennett said. “And I thought to myself, ‘This same scenario is playing out from here to Houston.’” Bennett, a pastor at the Life Church in Elizabethtown, eventually found himself in Evadale, population 1,430, where he spent nearly a week with his team aiding in “mudouts,” the act of cleaning water-damaged homes left in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.
Homes were flooded with up to 52 inches of water when the Neches River overflowed its banks. Left behind were rooms full of mud and sludge. The laborious recovery process included ripping down sheetrock, pulling out insulation and using chemicals to combat the spread of mold. Walls were often entirely reduced to their bare frames. “It’s a big part of getting peoples’ lives back to some sense of normalcy,” said Bennett. Among the most heartbreaking aspects was removing damaged possessions, salvaging whatever possible. Once treasures, items were reduced to trash. Bennett recalled a set of delicate figurines on a shelf at a woman’s home. At another, a man sat silently, stunned at the wreckage. The group prayed for peace upon completion of each project. The man was stoic. And then he cried. » Hurricane Relief Cont. on pg. 17
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