Standing Up for Affordable, Reliable Energy 
 

I recently submitted formal comments to the Public Service Commission on New York's clean energy plans, and I asked the tough questions that families and businesses here are asking:

  • What will this cost ratepayers, and who will pay?
  • Will we have the reliable power our seniors, farms, and growing communities depend on?
  • How will our farmland and local decision-making be protected?
Read My Full Letter Here
Honors for Wayne County Scout Whose Cemetery Restorations Have Drawn a National Audience
 

North Rose-Wolcott High School student Parker Maybe is making sure our community's history isn't forgotten, and at a recent Rose Town Board meeting, I presented him with a New York State Senate Commendation Award, one of the highest honors a State Senator can give.

Parker's interest in history started at age nine, when he joined a cleanup at Ellinwood Cemetery with his mother, former Rose Town Historian Melanie Maybe, and helped uncover a headstone buried underground. In 2023, he founded Gone Graving, and he has since cleaned more than 800 headstones across Wayne County and surrounding communities. He repairs and straightens damaged stones, clears overgrown sites, and researches the people buried there, helping preserve the stories of local veterans, community leaders, and some of our region's earliest residents.

Every headstone represents a person, a family, and a story, and Parker is making sure those stories aren't forgotten. His videos have drawn thousands of followers, and he hopes to teach others how to care for headstones properly. His initiative and respect for the generations who came before us are truly inspiring, and I'm grateful for his service to our community.

New York law lets grandparents ask a court for visitation with their grandchildren, but it says nothing about great-grandparents. As families live longer and great-grandparents take a bigger role in children's lives, that gap leaves loving relatives with no recourse when they're cut off.

Two constituents showed me how real this is when they stopped by my Mobile Office Hours at the Macedon Public Library. They had been part of their great-granddaughter's life since the day she was born. After a family loss, they were suddenly shut out. Their case reached the appeals court and ended there, not on the merits, but because the law doesn't recognize great-grandparents.

As a grandmother myself, I couldn't let that stand. I've signed on to co-sponsor legislation amending the Domestic Relations Law and Family Court Act to give great-grandparents the same standing grandparents already have. I've asked Senator Roxanne Persaud, chair of the Social Services Committee, to carry the bill in the Senate, and I'm building support on the Children and Families Committee.

This bill doesn't guarantee visitation to anyone. It gives great-grandparents the right to make their case before a judge, who still decides what's best for the child. It's a modest, common-sense fix whose time has come.

Conversations like this one are exactly why I hold Mobile Office Hours. I'll keep fighting for these families and every family facing this heartbreak, because the law should have room for the people who love a child most.