By Ashley M. Casey
Associate Editor
Thanks to a $6,000 donation from Driver’s Village, Cicero cops can access a new app when they need mental health services. The Cicero Town Board approved the donation and the purchase of the CordicoShield app at its Jan. 27 meeting.
Driver’s Village Marketing Director Ken Elander presented the donation to Cicero Police Chief Steve Rotunno on Jan. 22. The funds will go toward a customized version of the CordicoShield wellness app, which offers a variety of resources to support first responders’ physical and mental health.
Cordico — a company based in Gold River, California — provides wellness technology specifically for police officers, firefighters, emergency dispatchers and medical professionals. The app will be available to Cicero officers and their families.
The CordicoShield app provides numerous services:
- Self-assessments for anger, depression, post-traumatic stress, adverse childhood experiences, adult ADHD, and sleep
- Strategies for coping with grief and loss, anxiety and panic attacks, compassion fatigue and burnout, and intrusive traumatic images
- Guidance on nutrition, physical fitness, heart health and injury prevention
- Yoga for First Responders (YFFR) videos
- Family support, marital guidance and parenting tips
- Tips for financial planning, retirement and setting goals
The app also allows officers to search for vetted local mental health service providers and to contact their police chaplain. COVID-19 resources are also available.
According to Cordico.com, its apps are used by police and fire agencies in San Francisco, Chicago, Oklahoma City, Pittsburgh and elsewhere.
In a press release announcing the donation and detailing the app’s features, Chief Rotunno said he is “extremely grateful” for the donation from Driver’s Village.
“The CordicoShield Wellness App is a powerful tool that provides easy access to all of our officer wellness resources in one place confidentially and immediately,” Rotunno said.
In other police news, the Cicero Town Board approved the hiring of two police officers at the Jan. 27 meeting as well. Kyle Harrington has been hired on a full-time basis with an annual salary of $51,193, while Kevin Birardi will work part-time for $20.59 per hour.
Clay, Cicero aid North Syracuse in plowing
Also at the Jan. 27 meeting, the town board approved an intermunicipal agreement between the Cicero Highway Department and the village of North Syracuse to provide temporary services. The North Syracuse Department of Public Works had an outbreak of COVID-19 among its employees and reached out to the towns of Clay and Cicero asking for assistance in snow plowing.
According to CNY Central, four of North Syracuse’s eight plow drivers had tested positive for the virus.
“We made a general understanding that we were not going to be counting one side of the road or the other side of the road, whether it’s in Clay or if it’s in Cicero,” Cicero Supervisor Bill Meyer said at the Jan. 27 meeting. “We’re going to make this thing happen to protect the residents of the village.”
Citizens needed for comprehensive plan committee
Town Councilor Judy Boyke is putting together an advisory committee to revise the town’s comprehensive plan. In an email to the Star-Review, Boyke wrote that the town created a comprehensive plan in 2006 but never adopted it. Now that the town is receiving proposals for the development of solar energy facilities, it is time for an update. In late 2020, the town placed a one-year moratorium on solar development.
“We need to look at our land use and our environment and our zoning while we’re in this moratorium, particularly for our solar farms,” Boyke said Jan. 27. “We need to have a plan in place to properly place all of these new energy [facilities] that are coming into the town.”
Meyer said the company that helped write the previous comprehensive plan no longer exists.
The advisory committee will include representatives from the Cicero Town Board, Cicero Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals, Director of Code Enforcement Steve Procopio and a number of Cicero residents.
“It’s necessary to have some type of background in land use or environmental [issues],” Boyke said of the criteria for choosing citizens.
Interested residents should email [email protected] with their relevant experience.
Traffic issues will also factor into the town’s plan for the future. Meyer said traffic on Routes 31 and 11 has increasingly become an issue over the past few years.
Town Engineer Kate Fiorello said the New York State Department of Transportation is planning projects for 2022 that include improvements to Route 31 from Cicero-North Syracuse High School to Thompson Road, the Thompson-Route 31 intersection and the South Bay Road-Route 31 intersection.
Meyer said he hopes to continue discussions with the Syracuse Metropolitan Traffic Council about Route 11.