Thank you Putnam County
The county, state and nation are in the middle of a worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Our work and personal lives have been turned upside down. However, we will get through this together. And, it’s going to require special efforts by all of us. An example of this special effort was demonstrated over this past holiday weekend.
The county was given a mandate mid-day Saturday, the 23rd, to have 84 contract tracers trained by the end of the weekend. Our 7 county mid-Hudson region was given a mandate to have a total of 1,991 contact tracers trained by the end of the weekend. Previously, we were advised that employees would have until June 4th to be trained. CSEA Unit President Janet Canaday sent an email on Friday, the 22nd to all CSEA members about the requirement of being a contact tracer. What wasn’t known by Janet or anyone else at that time was that the training to be a contact tracer was going to be mandated for completion by the end of the weekend.
“Team Putnam” made up of CSEA members, PuMA management members, Management/Confidential employees, Town of Carmel employees, Medical Reserve Corps volunteers, PILOT interns and local community volunteers who were all advised by Paul Eldridge’s emailed letter on Saturday of this requirement and of the urgent need to respond. Fortunately, enough of you responded and gave up a major portion of your holiday weekend to tackle the training. As a result, Putnam County realized the required number of trained contact tracers and the region was able to reopen under Phase 1 as of today.
I would like to sincerely express my gratitude to you for responding to this call to action so we could meet this mandated requirement of New York State.
