Paul Szmal: It's Lawman Thursday. Our lawman is Cayuga County Sheriff Brian Schenck and he joins us now. Good morning Brian. How are you?
Brian Schenck: Good morning Paul. Doing great. Thank you.
Paul Szmal: And Brendan Raftis who is a deputy with the department is also on board. He's been with us before. Brendan, good to have you back sir.
Brendan Raftis: Thanks for having me back. Good morning.
Paul Szmal: And before we launch into some of the topics that we want to cover today, Brian I wanted to get a comment from you because we've heard the reports and just recently last week talking to Auburn City Clerk Chuck Mason. He was talking about you know the budget shortfall and the fact that some departments are being requested to present budgets that have cuts of up to 11%. I know you've expressed some concern with that so we'd like to get a comment from you on that to start off.
Brian Schenck: Sure. Yeah it's unfortunate that we have these budget challenges not just the county obviously but the city of Auburn is facing some serious deficits in their budget but I've been very vocal in the past with our county legislature when they've looked at ways to cut you know costs with the county that I think public safety has to be a last resort and that doesn't mean that you know we can have a blank check for our public safety resources but I believe that any municipality if they're facing these types of of issues that they really need to look at public safety as a last resort look at every every place that they can cut or generate you know additional revenue before they're cutting public safety because we really are in our community and I think every community faces the same struggle that we don't have a lot of extra resources in this area so it's really something we got to look at as a last resort.
Paul Szmal: Now let me turn over to Deputy Raftis here because we are at the time of the year where people will start to get their boats out of storage put them in the water and go out and enjoy waterways like Wasco Lake and other finger lakes so that means that it's also a time for boater safety courses to kick off.
Brendan Raftis: Yes that's right so we are offering a class at the Kewgan Odagibosis April 19th 9 a.m to 5 p.m. It's an eight-hour course that covers the basics of navigation also will cover signs safety equipment that's required I do let people know there is a multiple choice test at the end of it you know one of the big things in terms of safety that we like to cover with people is the required equipment for your vessel so one of the biggest things that we cover with people is an acronym it's called PTSAVE which is PFD every person on the vessel is required to have one type four throwable device sound and signal anchor online visual so that can be flares or a distress flag and an extinguisher appropriate for the size of the boat as well and if I'm correct it is a requirement that you take this boater safety course to operate a boat in New York state that's correct it went into effect January 1st of 2025 it was a big push due to Brianna's Law where I encourage any of your listeners that aren't familiar with that to do some research on it okay so that boating safety course that Deputy Raftis is talking about again is April the 19th registration is open for this it's at the Cayuga Onondaga BOCES Regional Education Center in Auburn that is a Sunday by the way runs from 9 until 5 and where do people go to register for that so to make it nice and easy for people the Sheriff's Office Facebook page we've done a social media post about it it tells you exactly where to go also provides you a QR link to scan you can also go to New York State Boater Safety online and they can access it that way as well okay so again that's the the Cayuga County Sheriff's Department Facebook page you can find the information on that boater safety course Deputy Raftis and Sheriff Schenck joining us here from Cayuga County on Finger Lakes News Radio on FLX Morning.
Paul Szmal: April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month Brian and it's Distracted Driving Awareness Month you know these are two things that unfortunately never go away.
Brian Schenck: They don't and unfortunately you know it's not just one month that we we need to pay close attention to these things it's 12 months a year but Child Abuse Prevention Month it's important that we bring awareness to the fact that you know unfortunately there are our kids in our community and beyond that are in difficult circumstances where they're facing abuse or maltreatment and we try to highlight during this month the fact that you know if a child's being abused or maltreated that there are ways that you know anybody in our community can report that to get them some help whether it's an emergency report to your local law enforcement agency or following the statewide registry on child abuse and maltreatment which those numbers can be found online but it's also important to note that we're bringing awareness this month to helping strengthen families it's not just about reporting abuse but trying to prevent it in the first place so there are resources if families are struggling or parents are struggling and need some help before these things happen that you know we encourage families to take advantage of these resources through social services and other means within the community.
Paul Szmal: I saw a report that from January through March of this year there were 21 overdoses in Cuyahoga County that's an average of about seven a month that number is actually down a little bit from last year right?
Brian Schenck: It is we've continued the trend down over the last few years we did have eight per month on average last year in 2025 so we hope this trend continues to go downward kind of good news and bad news we're seeing less people using opiates and fewer opiate overdoses and deaths but we're seeing a number of people in our community shift to different drugs such as methamphetamines or cocaine away from the opiate so good news on the overdose front but unfortunately we're seeing a shift into some new drugs and that's typical you see these these trends happen over a course of time that's not unusual but the good news is less overdoses and less fatalities as we as we trend downward from just a few years ago now the good news is that there are plenty of resources within the county for addiction as well as for you know mental health issues because like distracted driving like child abuse these are things that obviously we want to minimize but they're not going to go away the listing of agencies that you sent me actually covers two whole pages we are very resource rich in our community i've been very active with a lot of our service providers in cuba county that work on treating mental health and addiction challenges i i urge anyone that if they're struggling or knows somebody that is you know look up these resources there's a number of ways you can do it you can dial 2-1-1 if you need to call somebody on the phone you can search 2-1-1 on the internet you can also go to our community resources page on our website the cuba county sheriff's website and people could would have access to the same list that i sent you paul but we do have a lot of resources in our community a lot of peer support providers people that can help people find that path to a better lifestyle and i just urge anybody that looks listening that knows somebody or is struggling to take advantage of those resources and i misspoke because a couple of pages were stuck together it's actually three full pages of resources that are available within the county and again as sheriff schenck said 2-1-1 excellent resource to be able to have a starting point a way in you know talk to those people and they'll be able to connect you to the agencies and whatnot that you're looking for uh brian we we often talk about email and phone scams related to fundraising let's turn the tables here let's talk about a 100 legitimate real fundraising effort we will and i'm very proud of this one because i'm very active with our new york state sheriff's association but recently letters went out statewide and many people in our community have received those but they are letters looking for individuals in our community to become honorary members of our new york state sheriff's institute's membership drive we've sent those out recently and i've had a number of calls they and i'm glad that people do look to make sure that they aren't a scam but these letters appear to have come from me but they appear to come from albany they do come from albany from our sheriff's association returnable to 27 elk street in albany they are legitimate our sheriff's institute funding that is raised from this membership drive supports our summer camp it supports scholarship programs in our community sheriff assist which is notifications for victims of if an offender is getting out of jail an order of protection has been executed and served through sheriff assist those victims receive notification and this funding helps support all of those things along with some educational programs for sheriffs and sheriff's personnel across the state but this is a legitimate solicitation and i wanted to mention that today just because i know that sometimes seeing that you know a letter coming from from me the cuba county sheriff from albany would would pique your interest as to whether or not that's a scam but if it's going back to 27 elk street in albany that is a legitimate program and something that i i'm very very active with our sheriff's institute i serve as the the treasurer on our non-for-profit board and very active with that program so good stuff that impacts us in a positive way right here in cuba county and just to set the record here in case somebody tries to pull a scam on you if they call you saying they're from the sheriff's institute not legitimate not legitimate we do not solicit over the over the phone but i would urge anyone that if you get any type of solicitation whether it's by mail or by phone indicating it's from some type of law enforcement agency or entity supporting law enforcement and you question that please just call our our non-emergency line or any local law enforcement agency in your listening area and just see if it is legitimate because we get those calls frequently and we welcome those because we can help prevent a scam we certainly want to do that so reach out if you have any concern and if you want to find out more information on the sheriff's institute itself and some of the things that sheriff schenck is talking about you can visit the website sheriffs institute.org s-h-e-r-i-f-f-s institute.org and that'll give you some more information uh any uh more open houses or uh job opportunities on the horizon to talk about brian absolutely we do share those frequently the opportunities on our social media pages facebook and instagram we do hold open houses every thursday from 2 to 4 p.m every thursday just anyone can walk into our sheriff's office for an immediate interview if they're interested but we are recruiting for really all divisions within the sheriff's office so if you have an interest in law enforcement um anytime thursdays between two and four and i know all of the agencies in your listening area most every agency is uh recruiting and looking for staff just check in with them your local local law enforcement agency and i'm sure they would be willing and eager to speak with you if you have an interest as well and deputy raftis good to have you on board again thank you for joining us sir i appreciate it.
Brendan Raftis: Thank you and brian as always a pleasure to speak to you and we'll do it again next month thank you paul i appreciate it and thank you to all of your listeners for tuning in today
