October 17 – Two articles Link to full articles

First Article: The Ashford Town Board heard a presentation at its Oct. 9 meeting about investment opportunities for the town. Regional Marketing Director for NYCLASS Kathy Saville made a presentation to the board about NYCLASS and what it can offer to the town.

NYCLASS is a New York state cooperative investment program that “provides the opportunity to invest funds on a cooperative basis in short‐term investments that are carefully chosen to yield favorable returns while striving to provide maximum safety and liquidity,” according to the NYCLASS website.

Second article: The Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management and its prime contractor CH2M HILL BWXT the site’s infrastructure. Work was performed by the Site Operations Department, which is responsible for site utilities and maintenance activities.

“The completion of this work evolution will not only bring many benefits to the future cleanup of our EM site but also to the West Valley community,” WVDP Deputy Director Craig Rieman said. “This infrastructure upgrade will greatly increase the site’s electrical power reliability during future decommissioning and remediation activities now and will provide a reliable source of power for future cleanup activities. This investment will also increase the reliability of electrical power for the surrounding West Valley area. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, National Grid and DOE worked collaboratively to relocate transmission lines, eliminate a 1960’s era electrical substation and install modern equipment that is easily accessible to the utility company and allows switching transmission paths during upset conditions.”

October 14, 2019 – Officials are looking for feedback on the proposed Cattaraugus County Shared Services Plan.

A public hearing will be held at 3 p.m. Wednesday in the legislative chamber on the third floor of the County Center. The hearing is seeking comments on shared services plans for 2020 involving the county and more than 30 municipalities. Link to article

October 10, 2019 – The Springville Chamber of Commerce has partnered with Detective Corey Higgins, the Cattaraugus County Sheriff’s Office assigned to the Drug Enforcement Agency Buffalo Office; and David Schumm, CHBWV Security and Safeguards Manager at the West Valley Demonstration Project, to provide Active Shooter training for local businesses and their employees.

The training will take place at the Springville Country Club, 14445 S. Cascade Drive, Springville, on Wednesday, Oct. 23, from 8‐9 a.m. Link to article

October 10, 2019 – The Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management and the cleanup contractor at the West Valley Demonstration Project recently conducted a full-scale security exercise.

The drill included the contractor, CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley, and the Cattaraugus County Sheriff’s Department, Cattaraugus County Special Response Team, Cattaraugus-Chautauqua Bomb Squad, West Valley Volunteer Hose Fire and Rescue, with evaluation assistance from Cattaraugus County Emergency Services. Link to article

October 8, 2019 –

Safety Award: At EM’s West Valley Demonstration Project Site, Dae Chung, EM Deputy Assistant Secretary for Safety, Security, and Quality Assurance, presented employees with contractor CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley with the Star of Excellence award during a recent visit to the site.

“The safety and health of our employees, both contractor and federal, are the highest priorities for the Department,”Chung said. See page 1 of update

Agencyʹs Reuse of Equipment: EM’s West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) Site will achieve $1 million in savings by transferring cleanup equipment for reuse by a U.S. agency that operates facilities on the Saint Lawrence Seaway.

The transfer allows WVDP to avoid the time and expense of disposing of the equipment as waste. West Valley crews had used the equipment to lift and move 86.5-ton concrete casks containing waste canisters in a project vitrified high-level waste from the site’s Main Plant Process Building to an onsite interim storage pad, a necessary step to support the building’s eventual demolition. See page 2 of update