Indian Time - A Voice from the Eastern Door

ASSEMBLYMAN FELIX W. ORTIZ RESPONDS TO CLEVELAND KIDNAPPINGS WITH NEW LEGISLATION

Ortiz will introduce legislation to shorten the 24 hour period that law enforcement waits to post a missing person’s report.

 (Albany, NY) – The shocking report of three young women abducted and held for ten years in Cleveland, Ohio has led Assemblyman Ortiz to help prevent such atrocities in New York from ever happening. Typically, law enforcement officials do not issue a missing person’s report until after 24 hours of vanishing when the victim is over 18 years old.

 “A relative has a right to demand a missing persons report from police officers, even if the person is over 18,” said Ortiz. “Any law enforcement official will confirm that the first 24 hours after any crime is committed are usually the most important if the crime is to be resolved. Why should a person’s disappearance be treated any differently? Families of missing persons deserve immediate attention regarding their loved ones.”

 According to FBI and CIA statistics, one million adults and one hundred thousand children disappear without a trace every year in the United States. The early posting of a missing person’s report, when there is sufficient information to suggest danger, can significantly lower this trend. “A number of missing persons cases within the last decade have brought to light the need to bring New York’s laws up to date on this issue,” said Ortiz.

GOVERNOR CUOMO ANNOUNCES $3.7 MILLION TRANSMISSION LINE RELOCATION PROJECT TO SUPPORT ALCOA’S MASSENA MODERNIZATION

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that Alcoa’s Massena East smelter modernization project will be kicked-off next month with the relocation of a transmission-line necessary to accommodate a new substation and aluminum production equipment. The New York Power Authority (NYPA) Board of Trustees approved capital expenditures of more than $3.7 million for the relocation of the transmission line, which it operates.   

Alcoa committed to invest at least $600 million to modernize its Massena operations and retain a minimum of 900 jobs at the company’s Massena East and Massena West smelters in return for 478 megawatts of low-cost hydropower from the NYPA St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt Hydroelectric Plant. This amounts to approximately 60 percent of the plant’s generating output.

In March, the Alcoa Board of Directors announced that the company was prepared to proceed with the next phase of the modernization project.  It plans to invest $42 million for site preparation at Massena East and to provide $10 million toward a North Country Economic Development Fund.  The establishment of the fund is provided for under a long-term power agreement with NYPA that commences on Jan. 1, 2014.  

The power will be provided to Alcoa over a 30-year contract that includes a 10-year option to extend service beyond 2045.

The new 115-kilovolt (kV) substation that Alcoa will install at the Massena East site will provide power to the new potline, which keeps aluminum in liquid form, as well as other equipment.  The new substation, which will replace a more than half-century-old facility, will be located in an area now occupied by the three 115-kV transmission lines, which are being relocated.

Nearly one-mile long sections of each power line will be moved, with the work scheduled to begin early next month for completion in November.  The power-line relocation is provided for under a 2011 agreement in which Alcoa will reimburse NYPA for the engineering, procurement and construction costs.   

An Au Sable Forks company in Clinton County, Northline Utilities, will provide materials, installation and testing services for the transmission-line relocation under a competitively awarded $2.13 million contract with NYPA.     

Alcoa has been a customer of the Power Authority’s since St. Lawrence-FDR was first placed into commercial operation in 1958.