Paul Szmal: FLX Morning continues. It is 840 sun around the Finger Lakes. Temperature 28, but we do have a winter weather advisory in effect from 1am until 7pm for pretty much the entire Finger Lakes region tomorrow. Let's welcome in the man who is the 120th District Assemblyman, Brian Manktelow, as he is here with us. Good morning, Brian. How are you?
Brian Manktelow: I'm doing well, Paul. Good morning to you and your listeners, and I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving with your families and had a little bit of time off, I'm sure.
Paul Szmal: I need to tell you a story because it ties into something that we were conversing about just before we came on the air. I was at Wegmans here in Geneva last week, I think it was, and I saw something that I haven't seen in quite a while. Somebody actually paying for their groceries by check. And it reminded me that while we're in the computer age, where a lot of things are done either with smart devices or paying via plastic, credit card, ATM cards, things of that nature, there are still people that either don't have the computer access or haven't made that leap yet that are still doing things what we have called the old-fashioned way. And you're actually looking at a piece of legislation coming up at the new legislative session in January that might address that.
Brian Manktelow: Yeah, Paul, what I'm hearing from some of our senior citizens, and I actually spoke to a lady last week about this, and she had a spectrum bill, and they did not mail her bill this time, so she was late with it. So she called the number and finally got ahold of someone, and they were trying to talk her into paying for that past due bill via credit card or debit card, and she didn't want to do that. She didn't want to give her number over the phone. You know, we're pushing people not to do that because of all the people that are hacking systems out there and taking people's numbers. So I'm going to look into see if there's any legislation out there yet or if we need to do this, but I really feel as a service to our seniors and other people, they should have the choice whether they want to have a bill mailed and sent in a check. That's really their choice, and I think the businesses need to allow them to do that. So, Paul, that's one of the things I'll be looking at as we get ready to go into the session.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, you know, when you think about it, this affects senior citizens, but it also affects other people because, hey, not everybody can afford the computer or the smart device.
Brian Manktelow: Yeah, absolutely, and you know, we're pretty good shape here in Wayne County. I don't know if we're 100% able to get Wi-Fi to everyone, but I know, you know, other areas around our communities and especially in a lot of the rural areas, Paul, they just don't have that access, and I've got to be honest with you, if I'm an upper senior citizen close to 90, I'm not going to want to get online and want to try to do that probably, speaking for myself, but they need to have the option to do what they want. I mean, they're providing a service, let them pay them the way they want to.
Paul Szmal: We're getting ready for the holiday season. The month of December is National Adoption Month.
Brian Manktelow: Yeah, yeah, that's right, National Adoption Month. I believe it was November, though.
Paul Szmal: Oh, sorry. No, no, that's fine. We were talking about it. My bad.
Brian Manktelow: Oh, no, no, no worries. Yeah, it's really near and dear to my heart because I don't know if a lot of people know that my first two children are adopted, and I went through the process, my wife and I did, and it was quite a process, and to see these young people come to our homes, you know, we got a call one day that, hey, we got a little baby girl for you. You can pick her up tomorrow, and it's like, whoa, and it just kind of hits you in the face, and there's a lot of families that adopt out there, and it's just a great thing to do. It helps spread love and kindness to a young person that may not get that or end up in a home for many years, so it's just near and dear to my heart, and I really appreciate the people that do the adoptions, and even the ones that gave up my daughter and my son for adoption, you know, they couldn't do it, and they, instead of doing the alternative, they gave them up for adoption, and I'm so thankful for that.
Paul Szmal: I'm just thinking about getting that phone call that says, oh, yeah, you can, we have a little girl that you can adopt. You can pick her up tomorrow. I don't know that anything, even if you're looking to adopt, prepares you for the, oh, we've got 24 hours to turn this around.
Brian Manktelow: Yeah, it was, you know, we went through the classes. They come and inspected our house to make sure we had a good home, and everything was on the up and up, and all that stuff went through the background checks, and then, you know, you never know when you're going to get that call, and that was through Wayne County Department of Social Services, and they called us in an afternoon about 4 o'clock and, hey, we have a little girl for you tomorrow, and one of the hardest things was we had to come up with a name. We had to come up with a name by tomorrow morning, and I remember going through that process for our daughter. It was just, it was a funny process, the way we came up with her name, but it was pretty unique. Fast forward to today, everything has turned out wonderful.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, she's 33 years old. She has four children and married, and our son David, married, lives in Pennsylvania right now, and I'm just so thankful that they were able to be part of my life.
Brian Manktelow: And thankful, I'm sure, that they were adopted by a family as well because, you know, obviously the alternative is not a good one.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, absolutely, and, you know, I talk about that on the Assembly floor quite often. There's other alternatives out there, and let's try to do the best thing for that child, and I'm just so thankful, and one of the things I spoke about on the Assembly floor was, you know, I never met the mom or dad of the two children that we adopted, but I'm sure I see them in their facial expressions and their eyes and all that, and it's just, as you think back how things happen, it's just remarkable, a remarkable process, and I'm just so thankful that we were able to adopt two children and gave them a successful life and a good home.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with State Assemblyman Brian Mangtelo here on FLX Morning. You recently participated in the formal renaming of a public safety building in your area.
Brian Manktelow: Yeah, here in Wayne County when I was a town supervisor, Paul, back, probably been 15 years ago already, we redid the former nursing home over to a public safety building here in Wayne County. We reused that building, and it was called the Wayne County Public Safety Building, but Sheriff Milby came up with the idea of moving it forward, creating it with the name of our former sheriff a few years or a few cycles ago was Richard Piscotti, and it's now named the Richard J. Piscotti Public Safety Building here in Wayne County. We had some of the news stations out, and it was a great event. It was a great renaming, and a lot of people came out. Senator Helming was there, a lot of the local supervisors and other friends and family, and it was really nice to see, and it was well-fitting for what he did for public safety here in Wayne County back in his day, and one of the remarkable things was when Sheriff Virts, former sheriff, talked a little bit about working with him and what he did for public safety, it really brought it all together, and it was just a great event and a great way of honoring Mr. Piscotti with the renaming of the building.
Paul Szmal: You know, it's nice to be able to do these sort of things for the families, to kind of carry on the legacy of these people.
Brian Manktelow: Yeah, you don't think about that all the time, but yeah, and then, you know, some of his loved ones were there at the renaming, and I met some people from up north that had came down just for the ceremony, and they were up in the Montague area. They have snowmobiles, and they do an inn up there, the Montague Inn, and I got a chance to talk to them, and we talked about things that New York State needs to change to help them in their business, and so we've created a time to set up and talk with one another and see what I can do to help move some of the issues that they have in New York State, and that's really what my job is all about, helping everyone to better their lives or their businesses, and it just, it makes me feel good because that's what this job is about.
Paul Szmal: And I know you've got some meetings still lined up here as the countdown continues to the start of the new term in January.
Brian Manktelow: Yeah, we're meeting every single day. There's a couple meetings I have already scheduled today. I'll be up in the Webster School District this afternoon, which is part of my district, and I'll be out in Palmec later this week with Assemblyman Jeff Gellaghan. Palmec's in my district, but one of the students is in his district, and we'll be meeting with them and, you know, going through the schools, talking with them, talking to the students, and it's really a fun time because we get to interact with the students and the staff, and it helps us get prepared again to head back to Albany as we start the process of legislation and start the process of the budget.
Paul Szmal: And I'm sure you get some pretty good questions from the students sometimes.
Brian Manktelow: Oh, yeah. I was in Lions a few weeks ago to meet with the government class, and I had them for two periods, and they got to come up with a lot of questions, and, you know, it was really remarkable that a lot of those students know what's going on, but to get their perspective and, you know, how, why are we doing it this way, that's not helping my family and giving them answers, but building that relationship, and just like I said, as we talk with one another, like I talk with you, you know, it gets us geared up for Albany and what we need to do to represent this area and this, our areas in our district, but also around the Finger Lakes area as well.
Paul Szmal: All right. Well, if I don't get a chance to talk to you beforehand, a wonderful happy holiday season to you and the family.
Brian Manktelow: Well, thank you so much, Paul. Happy holidays and Merry Christmas to you and your family and to all your listeners, and as I said before Thanksgiving, take the time to spend with your family, take the days and just enjoy it because it goes by so fast. It's just a great time of the year.
Paul Szmal: It certainly is. It's 851 on FLX Morning.
