Local News: February 5, 2024

-  Tioga County issues alert after cluster of heroin overdoses -

Tioga County health officials are alerting people after a recent cluster of heroin overdoses that took place in three days last week. Officials say no one died.

Kylie Holochak is senior educator with the county's health department. She said Naloxone, also called Narcan was administered in most if not all of the cases and that helped save lives.

Holochak said more people need to carry Narcan. Because of how large the county is emergency responders can't always get to a location in time to administer the Naloxone.

"Narcan is pretty widely available in Tioga County. So, we do have it available through Tioga County Public Health, as well as Tioga County Mental Hygiene, and then CASA-Trinity," she said.

Those offices are in Owego but Holochak said people can ask pharmacies for Narcan and the county also has Public Access Narcan boxes where its availalble any time.

"We currently have 31 of these boxes installed around the county. It's just a red metal box and it’ll have two or three things of Narcan in it," she said.

Holochak said the county won't disclose how many overdoses there were but she said they happened in different areas of the county. Officials are concerned they may have been caused by heroin mixed with fentanyl or another substance. Holochak says 9-1-1 should be called even if Narcan is administered because sometimes people need additional medical help.

- Lawmakers propose new bill to tighten fracking ban -

A group of state lawmakers have introduced a bill to close a loophole in the state’s fracking ban. The new bill would ban the use of carbon dioxide to extract gas and oil. The Binghamton Press and Sun says the move is a response to proposals by Southern Tier CO2 Clean Energy Solutions. The out-of-state company began approaching area landowners about leasing rights. In a radio interview, a company owner said the company would extract natural gas from the Utica and Marcellus shales using carbon dioxide not water. He called it a form of carbon sequestration. In December, State Senator Lea Webb and Binghamton Assemblyperson Donna Lupardo wrote to the state DEC asking about the company and its proposed strategy. Webb and Assemblyperson Anna Kelles are authors of the new bill.