Meet Cortland County’s Senior Public Health Educator, Liz Nichols

Matt Brooks: [00:00:00] Good morning. I’m Matt Brooks on X101 Always Classic in for another edition of Meet Cortland County and back in the studio with me today. It’s Liz Nichols, Senior Public Health Educator from the Cortland County Health Department. Liz, how’s it going this morning?

Liz Nichols: It’s going great. Thanks for having me, Matt.

Matt Brooks: Well, it’s great to have you back cause the last time we had you in, we were talking about radon, which is an important subject, but today we’re talking about the Cortland County Healthy Neighborhoods Program as a whole. Now, first off. Liz, what is the Healthy Neighborhoods Program? What do you do?

Liz Nichols: So the Healthy Neighborhoods Program, it’s a grant for our county through New York State, and basically it’s a home safety program in a nutshell.

And there’s no income eligibility, so that means every resident every person that lives in Cortland County qualifies for the Healthy Neighborhoods Program. And what we do is very simple, very easy. We have a nice quick housing assessment and that helps us identify what [00:01:00] you might need for your home. And then the products we can provide to you free of charge, no cost.

So if we identify that you need a new smoke detector, we can get you that smoke detector. Or if you need a new carbon monoxide detector. We can get you that carbon monoxide detector.

Matt Brooks: Yeah. I wanna stress, you said there’s no income eligibility. It’s, it’s all geographic. You have to be a Cortland County resident.

But that’s where the, the requirements end.

Liz Nichols: Right you can, if you are a renter, if you own your own home, whatever, you just live, reside in Cortland County, you, you qualify in this. So this program is for you and we wanna make our homes. Safer. We, we spend a lot of time in our homes. It’s freezing. Yeah. Right.

So we’re in our house. We wanna create an environment that’s safe and safe for our family members.

Matt Brooks: And whether you have a specific question or, I mean, maybe you just want to inquire. You say, Hey, I, I recently, maybe, maybe you’re a recent homeowner or, or a brand new renter. It’s like, Hey, I just [00:02:00] got this place.

You can just call and get that home assessment and you have the checklist, so it makes it real easy and itemizes things that then you can connect to the services that that person particularly would need and, uh, get their home safe, warm, or cool once it finally warms up. Uh, and such. Now, Liz. You said it, then all you have to be is a Cortland County resident.

Now, if you are a Cortland County resident, how would they get ahold of you? Is there a a form that they would fill out? Do they just call you, email ?

Liz Nichols: So it’s super easy to participate in this program. If you are someone that likes to pick up the phone and call a reach out and talk to me directly. You can call us at (607)-428-5410 and leave your message.

Or I might pick up and we’ll set something up right there on the phone. Or if you are a little shyer and you wanna think about it, go online to just type in Google Cortland County Healthy Neighborhoods Program. We’ve got an [00:03:00] online form. Fill that out. And I will call you.

Matt Brooks: It’s easy as that. Now, uh, we are running a little bit outta time, Liz, but we were talking about, I mean, you have the whole home assessment where that you can get everything checked off the list, but if recent recollection, it’s, it’s winter, it’s, I mean, we’re heading into March right around the corner.

What are some of the common inquiries you have just maybe to kind of provide an example, maybe put maybe somebody’s listening and says, Hey, you know what, I actually wanna inquire about that too. What are some recent examples?

Liz Nichols: So for example, let’s say that you were looking through, you know, you’re at your home and you notice that your fire extinguisher is from 1980, you might wanna call me and we’ll get you hooked up with a new fire extinguisher.

And if you need a little support and how do I, how do I use this? We’ll come in and run you through that. Get you familiar with that fire extinguisher that you might have, you know, wanna have in your home. Or if you have questions about radon or need [00:04:00] assistance with testing, we can help you set that test kit up.

Say you are at the next steps where you’re considering mitigation, then we’re gonna, we are able to talk with you and refer you to mitigators, for example, you have an issue with in need of weatherization. We might connect you with Capco, so we’re definitely going to try to help you if we can get you the products you need.

But if we can’t, we’re gonna connect you and refer you to other agencies in our county that will assist you.

Matt Brooks: Yeah. I think as your role is more of a the point person that everything that you need, whether the Healthy Neighborhoods Program provides itself, it’s, it’s either itself or another organization go to you because you can put them in the right direction.

Liz Nichols: Yes.

Matt Brooks: One last time. I mean, you can always Google the, uh, the Healthy Neighborhoods program. Can we get the phone number one more time in case people want to call?

Liz Nichols: Yes. (607)-428-5410, (607)-428-5410. [00:05:00]

Matt Brooks: I gotta thank you again, Liz, for stopping by the studio telling us about the Healthy Neighborhoods Program, and uh, I hope you have a great rest of your day and stay warm.

Liz Nichols: Thank you. You too.

Matt Brooks: It’s been another edition on Meet Cortland County you’re on X101 Always Classic. I’m Matt Brooks.