For adding weight to a constituent’s cause mired in red tape, speaking with state and federal representatives who maintain local offices can’t be overstated. In Kingston congressmember Pat Ryan keeps an office at 307 Wall Street. State senator Michelle Hinchey maintains an office at 721 Broadway Suite 150. The office of assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha can be visited at 324 Washington Avenue.
When Shrestha or Hinchey is in Albany and Ryan in Washington D.C., staffers hold down the fort and address concerns and troubleshoot. To bring face-to-face constituent service to municipalities throughout the region, all three have announced mobile office hours over the coming month. Calling ahead is most often a prerequisite.
Ryan’s office keeps a van traveling about the district, known as the CARES (Constituent Advocacy Resources Empowerment Services) van, to “build upon the goal of bringing vital federal services” directly to constituents.
Staffers for Hinchey, besides providing for later office hours on Thursdays for the convenience of nine-to-five constituents, will be at the Elting Memorial Library in New Paltz on Tuesday, February 20, partnering with state comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s office of unclaimed funds. Appointments are available from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Stop by and see if the state owes you any money.
Specialists from Hinchey’s team can also help with heating and housing support, connections to food and health resources, solving EZPass and DMV issues, and navigating state agencies.
Constituents of Hinchey and Ryan are forced to share their representatives liberally. Both represent districts which cross multiple county lines: Columbia, Greene, Dutchess, Orange. As a result, extra-official appearances for both are limited in February. Ryan, who’s pursuing a van-life goal of visiting all 82 municipalities in his district, won’t have any mobile office hours in Ulster County in February.
Shrestha, who only has to split time between portions of Ulster and Dutchess counties, will offer three days in February when residents of New Paltz, Gardiner and Woodstock can bring their problems to Shrestha’s staffers. Residents of Hurley and Saugerties will have three days in March for convenient access. The schedule is: February 8, 3 to 6 p.m. at the Elting Memorial Library in New Paltz; February 20, 5 to 8 p.m. at the Gardiner Library; February 24, 12 to 3 p.m. at the Mescal Hornbeck Community Center in Woodstock; March 1, 12 to 3 p.m. at the Saugerties Library; March 6, 5 to 8 p.m. at the Saugerties Library; March 18, 12 to 3 p.m. at the Hurley Library.
“In the past,” says Shrestha, “we’ve been able to expedite certification for the only bilingual social worker at a high school in our district, hold an employer accountable to submit paperwork on behalf of his employees for the healthcare workers’ bonus, escalate a constituent’s worker compensation approval days before a scheduled surgery, hand-deliver Rupco papers to a senior for rental assistance and facilitate the entire process so he can stay in his apartment, help a constituent resolve a storm-drain issue with her municipality, help seniors apply for HEAP to get furnaces replaced, create a no-passing zone on a dangerous stretch of Route 9W, and, of course, get countless Central Hudson bills adjusted.”
Her email is district103@nyassembly.gov, her phone 845-338-9610.
Join the family! 
