In his 2021 State of the County address, Monroe County Executive Adam Bello said the county handled the COVID-19 crisis by preparing, planning “and we adjusted on a dime.”
Bello began with a video montage of how the county handled the pandemic, moving on to a plan to redesign county human services. He says the forensic Intervention Team will be increased from a staff of three to 20 clinicians, working 24/7. He says the county is also reorganizing family services to give them both short and long-term help. Bello says we should be bringing services to people proactively, not waiting for them to call the county.
Bello says $2 million in loans that were given out to help small businesses survive the pandemic will be converted from loans to grants, so they don’t have to be paid back. Bello pledged a further $20 million in grants to recovering small businesses.
Bello said there will be $10.7 million budgeted for road repairs and upgrades, and the county will invest $7.5 million in maintaining and upgrading its parks system, updating restrooms to be ADA compliant and other work.