Latest news with #Frisbie
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Republicans offer proposal to block locals from banning natural gas
Rep. Steve Frisbie (R-Battle Creek) testifies before the House Energy Committee on June 3, 2025. | Screenshot Local control and energy choice issues were once again up for discussion in the Michigan Legislature this week as a Republican representative made his case on a proposal centered around natural gas-powered appliances. The legislation came from Rep. Steve Frisbie (R-Battle Creek), who testified Tuesday before the House Energy Committee. Frisbie's House Bill 4486, he said, inspired by attempts to ban natural gas connections and appliances in new homes, pointing to a 2023 proposal in Ann Arbor urging city leaders to ban gas service in new housing builds with limited exceptions. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX In response, House Bill 4486 would prevent municipalities from adopting or enforcing ordinances, policies or resolutions that ban the use of natural gas in their locality, or block the installation of natural gas infrastructure, voiding any ordinance that violates this law. 'This legislation is a reflection of personal freedoms,' Frisbie said. 'Who are we to tell a family how they can keep their families warm following an ice storm.' However, old arguments stemming from Republican's opposition to legislative Democrat's 2023 energy law changes quickly bubbled to the surface, as Rep. Julie Brixie (D-Meridian Township) asked Frisbie whether he believed in local control. More than a year and a half ago, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer put her pen to legislation aimed at expanding clean energy in Michigan, with one set of bills granting the state's energy regulator the authority to approve permits for large-scale renewable energy and battery storage projects, which was previously exclusive to local governments. Republicans viewed the change as an incursion, ripping zoning control away from Michigan communities to force wind and solar on localities who had opposed those resources. Earlier this year, members of the Republican-led House voted on party lines to repeal the change, with Senate Republicans unveiling their own effort to eliminate the law in late May. However, neither proposal is likely to make it through the Democratic-led Senate. While multiple Democratic members of the House Energy Committee pressed Frisbie on how his bill would impact infrastructure and interact with farmland preservation ordinances, Frisbie said the policy 'has nothing to do with gas infrastructure.' 'It has to do with appliances and a choice of being able to use gas versus electric as a user,' Frisbie said. 'It has nothing to do with infrastructure.' Courtney Brady, the Midwest deputy director for Evergreen Action, which advocates for Climate Action in several states, called the scope and the motivation of the bill confusing, telling Michigan Advance 'the fact that the bill is so open ended is concerning.' Although there are incentives in the state to help Michiganders upgrade to energy-efficient electrical appliances, Brady said Michigan localities aren't looking to ban natural gas, calling the bill a 'false solution in search of a problem.' 'These are messaging attempts,' she said. 'They're distractions.' Prior to the introduction of Frisbie's legislation, Sen. Joe Bellino (R-Monroe) introduced a nearly identical policy in the Democratic-led Senate, Senate Bill 275. It has not received a committee hearing.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Residents critique care at Rochester's Frisbie Hospital under HCA
If you wanted to know how things have gone at Frisbie Memorial Hospital since for-profit HCA Healthcare, the world's largest hospital conglomerate, took over in 2020, Wednesday's public meeting in Rochester told two stories. Corporate leaders and hospital staff marched in lockstep to the podium and offered their own positive self-assessments. Residents came not to praise HCA, but to plead with the state's Health Care Consumer Protection Advisory Commission and Attorney General John Formella to help make their community hospital better. The meeting was 2½ hours long so everyone who signed up could speak. The first 88 minutes of input, however, was almost entirely HCA and Frisbie officials talking about the strides they've made. State Sen. Tom McGough and state Rep. Julie Miles, both Merrimack Republicans who are on the commission, prodded doctors, nurses and officials to speak in unscripted terms, answer questions and be accountable to patients. 'That's a great testimonial from the CMO. I'm thrilled to hear that things have come back — ortho, neuro, partial hospital psych services. That's fantastic. We've got a room full of folks. What are we about to hear? What are you still missing?' McGough asked Dr. Trevor Eide, the chief medical officer. Eide said Frisbie's goal is to take care of as many patients as possible in Rochester and send only the sickest patients to Portsmouth Regional Hospital, which is also owned by HCA. 'If I had to say there's one thing that I'd like to have back, one service line, I think nephrology to provide dialysis for our dialysis patients.' Eide said when pressed. Hospital officials listed several areas of improvement, including faster turnaround to transfer critically ill patients to other hospitals and better access to outpatient services, primary care and specialists. Frisbie has also decreased the time it takes a patient coming into the emergency room to be evaluated by a provider, which is now less than six minutes, according to Dr. Carly Shiembob, the medical director for Frisbie's emergency department. Yvonne Goldsberry, a member of the commission, suggested HCA provide a community benefit report like nonprofit hospitals are required to share with the public. Goldsberry, Formella, McGough and Miles all suggested better communication and community outreach. Merger fallout Residents focused mostly on services they lost after HCA saved Frisbie from closing just before COVID-19 hit. Commission members also made note of services Frisbie no longer provides, such as discontinuing labor and baby delivery services. In 2022, Formella's office investigated why HCA, which had agreed as part of the merger in 2020 to continue several services for at least five years, reneged on its promise and began sending expectant mothers 21 miles down the Spaulding Turnpike to Portsmouth. Ultimately, HCA and the AG's Office worked out a deal in 2023 for HCA to provide $2.75 million to the Greater Rochester Community Health Foundation to improve health and well-being for Rochester-area residents. 'How would you have us spend the $2.75 million, which is not much to a big company like HCA. But that money came from HCA and, let's face it, it's got to be part of the cost of business. How would you have this commission spend it?' McGough asked Rochester Mayor Paul Callaghan, one of the speakers who praised Frisbie. Callaghan suggested using the money to improve mental health and drug addiction services. Sharp criticism Dr. Mike Metzger, who worked at Frisbie as a cardiologist from 2005 to 2023 and now works at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover, said the most seasoned doctors and nurses have left Frisbie. 'I feel like HCA does have a playbook, and it knows how to harvest its profit,' Metzger said. 'I say this with great sadness. I was one of the biggest cheerleaders of Frisbie, but I feel like this has to be said. While there may be some services there, they're nominally there. Most patients are being transported to Portsmouth Hospital.' Sharon Croft, who was born at Frisbie and was a school nurse for almost 30 years, said she and others lost their doctors and received little or no notification. Others said the bad communication about doctor departures put some of them in a bind when it came time to renew the medications they relied on or couldn't find where their doctors moved to. Incidents like those eroded trust in the hospital and HCA, they said. 'Even though we hear all of these good things, people that I deal with, people in my neighborhood, they don't want to go to Frisbie,' Croft said. 'They want to go someplace else. It's not the people, it's what's available to them, and whether they are actually going to get the things they need. Or are they going to end up going someplace else anyway?' Roberta Goodrich, who lived in Rochester for 22 years before moving to Wakefield and previously worked at Frisbee, was disappointed when HCA closed the White Mountain Medical Center, the Barrington Walk-In Care and Seacoast Readicare in Somersworth. HCA officials said they had to close their clinics because they were losing money and didn't have enough patients to justify staying open. Goodrich said the reduction in services makes it clear that HCA values profits over patients. 'Since the HCA acquisition, Frisbie Hospital no longer has labor and delivery maternity care. How many women want to have prenatal care and then find out they have to go somewhere else to deliver,' Goodrich said. 'Delivery doesn't really generate much money for the company unless it's a complicated delivery or involves a C section.' Marsha Miller, who lives across the street from Frisbie, said she goes to Wentworth-Douglass because her husband can't get the care he needs in their home city. 'No matter what stories we hear today, and they are awesome, the reality is that people in Rochester that have touched the hospital before these changes, have that negative image,' Miller said. She said Frisbie can overcome the negative perception with better care and better communication. Putting patients first Formella was asked why so many people from HCA took up the majority of time during public comments and why residents didn't get to speak until the meeting was more than half-way over. 'We're going to think hard about that going forward as to how to make sure that these forums are true community forums, and we hear mostly from community members,' Formella said. 'Obviously, we don't' want to tell people they can't speak, but we also need to make sure that we're setting this up in a way that we hear from the community. I think we heard a lot from the community tonight, but I think in forums going forward, we're going to work to make sure we're hearing even more from community members and less from representatives from corporations.' Goldsberry agreed, saying HCA knows how to stay on message. 'The hospital has a lot of resources, and when they come to public events, they come with all their resources,' she said. 'Community members don't have those kinds of resources.' She said the commission will balance the testimony during the public meeting with a large amount of feedback its received from residents who email in their concerns. To submit a question for the Health Care Consumer Protection Advisory Commission, email Christine Rioux at dpierce@
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Boca Raton's major development plan near Brightline station may see some changes, including fewer homes
Boca Raton officials are advancing a high-priority plan to revitalize the downtown area near the Brightline station, transforming it into a transit-oriented community with new homes, city facilities, dining options, shops and more. The 30 acres set for an overhaul are located at the government campus, which is at the intersection between West Palmetto Park Road and Dixie Highway and contains city buildings, the tennis center, the skate park and shuffleboard courts, one of the city's libraries, a tire shop, a 7-Eleven and the Brightline station. The plan to redevelop it has been met with some opposition, and in response to residents' concerns, the developers recently presented potential revisions to the city. 'This has been really an amazing process for us. The amount of feedback that we've received to date has been tremendous, and most of that feedback has been constructive,' Rob Frisbie, with the Frisbie Group real estate firm, said to City Council members during a public workshop on Tuesday. The Frisbie Group is representing the government campus redevelopment plan along with the Terra Group, another real estate firm. 'We've worked really hard to incorporate the vast majority of the feedback we've received, and I'm really proud of where we are. I think that we now have a plan that is truly exceptional, that if we can execute on this, it will create a legacy for generations to come and, and I'll go as far to say I think communities from around the world will want to travel here to learn about the process that we've gone through and to learn about the plan,' Frisbie said. The primary concerns involved too much density, increased congestion around the area, pedestrian safety concerns and ensuring adequate green space. According to a presentation by the Frisbie Group, an updated plan could include: — Reducing the proposed residential units from 1,129 to 912 with the removal of three residential buildings. — Improving pedestrian mobility with a crosswalk and protected bike path. — Options for 'enhanced public spaces,' including outdoor tennis courts, outdoor and indoor basketball, and indoor pickleball. — A 20% increase in 'active recreational area.' — An 'enhanced community center' with a fitness room, indoor courts, meeting rooms and locker rooms. — Enhanced parking options. 'We're working really hard to incorporate things that people are going to want to use on a daily basis there so that it really feels like an active park,' Frisbie said. 'We've taken some inspiration of this from some of those really great European plazas where you do have vehicular traffic that comes through, but it comes through very slowly.' According to the Frisbie Group's presentation about the updated plan, it 'aims not to maximize density, but rather to create a sense of place that is authentically Boca Raton by right-sizing the scale and massing and prioritizing the pedestrian experience.' A primary topic of discussion among the City Council members about the new plan pertained to the future of the current sports facilities at the government campus — the tennis center, softball field and skate park. 'I want to really advocate for keeping recreation, keeping the 'play' part of 'work, live, play' in the downtown,' Deputy Mayor Fran Nachlas said during Tuesday's workshop. In April, city parks and recreation officials discussed the Boca Raton parks being evaluated for the sport facility relocations, including Meadows Park next to Boca Raton Community Middle School, University Woodlands Park along St. Andrews Boulevard, Countess de Hoernle Park near the Boca Raton Airport, Sugar Sand Park along South Military Trail and North Park, the site of the former Ocean Breeze Golf Club. Council member Andy Thomson said he believes city officials should be doing more to 'minimize the recreational displacement.' When the conversation touched on the new number of residences, the council members had conflicting views about how to proceed. Thomson said he believes the density is 'still too much.' Meanwhile, council member Yvette Drucker said if the project is supposed to work the way it's intended, then there could actually be more intensity and density. 'If you have less cars and you have more pedestrianism, bicycle, multimodal options, you are not going to cause traffic,' she said. 'I'm OK with the mixed use and the reduction in intensity, but a true project of this nature, in my opinion, if we're trying to get to where we want to be with pedestrianism and walkability, you would have more intensity, more variety of usage because we have to get away from thinking about the parking.' Ultimately, the conversation between the Frisbie Group and the City Council on Tuesday was one of many that will be had before groundbreaking as the project continues to progress forward while undergoing modifications. 'We're continuing to evolve. We'll see more things. We are understanding of the needs of many people and trying to respond to different types of recreation, different types of uses, different places for them,' Mayor Scott Singer said during the workshop. 'This will continue to congeal and form and take on evolving statuses.'
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'It's my future, too'
East Lyme — In the corner of the bright and airy dining room inside 16-year-old Emma Frisbie's home sits an easel with two unfinished paintings. Next to them is a protest sign she plans to hold Saturday at the rally she organized single-handedly. 'The bigger painting is of Lady Justice holding a megaphone calling out against tyranny,' Frisbie said Wednesday. 'The other is a pretty sailboat, because I need some serenity in my life.' On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people across the country are expected to participate in mass rallies protesting President Donald Trump and his administration, though Frisbie said her gathering has a decidedly gentler, but still pointed, slant. 'I want to keep things positive, not anti-Trump or anti-anything else,' the East Lyme High School sophomore said. 'But at the same time, there're issues I am passionate about — the environment, women's rights — that I want to bring attention to.' In eastern Connecticut, as in the rest of the U.S., a series of 'Hands Off! A National Day of Action' gatherings are largely being marshaled by progressive grassroots groups like Indivisible and the 50501 movement, organizations with strong infrastructures that have the ability to mobilize a crowd quickly. For instance, southeastern Connecticut branches of the national Indivisible organization are hoping to attract hundreds of attendees to New London and Norwich protests on Saturday. But unlike other protests, Frisbie's rally, scheduled from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the Niantic Green, doesn't depend on a cadre of seasoned volunteers or a slick media campaign. Instead, Frisbie made calls to various Town Hall departments to get permission to gather before creating her own flyer that was shared by a group of social media friends. 'It's just me,' she said. 'If 10 people show up, that's a success for me.' Frisbie's flyer, which features an image of the Statue of Liberty crowned with the word 'resist,' asks potential attendees to join for a protest centered on nearly a dozen issues such as clean energy, NATO, LGBTQ+ protections, free speech, science and body-related rights. Frisbie said she was motivated to act after attending a recent anti-Trump rally in New London organized by the Guardians of Democracy Indivisible group. 'It was my first protest and I'd been feeling helpless, being a young person but not being able to vote even as I'm watching my future change right before my eyes,' she said. 'It's my future, too, with things about higher education being changed without me having a say.' Frisbie, a competitive public speaker and poet — she is a 2024 National Endowments for the Arts Poetry Out Loud state champion — who sells her artwork online and at a local studio, said while Saturday marks her foray into organized rallies, it's not her first brush with protesting. 'Last Election Day, I had a silent protest where I sat quietly in a lawn chair outside a polling place with a sign asking people to vote for my future,' she said. Waterford Bonnie Fenn Sullivan, a founding member of the Guardians group, which regularly attracts hundreds of protesters to its rallies, said she learned of Frisbie's intentions from state Rep. Nick Menapace, D-East Lyme. 'I just think it's incredibly impressive,' said Sullivan, a retired civics teacher. 'I'm reassured that the U.S. will be in good hands as long as we have young leaders like Emma to carry on. She embodies the best attributes of Americans: courage, empathy and intelligence. And the initiative to use it all for the good of the country. Frisbie said if Saturday's rally goes well, she'll continue down the protest path. 'Maybe bigger protests?' she said. 'With speakers and a march?' IF YOU GO 'Hands Off!' rallies on Saturday New London 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., in front of New London Superior Court, 70 Huntington St. Niantic 3-5 p.m., Niantic Green, 231 Main St. Norwich 2-4 p.m., Chelsea Parade.
