Vaccinations and the cost of the pandemic were at center stage during Thursday’s State of the State presentation by Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul to officials and members of the Chautauqua County community. The event was hosted by the city of Dunkirk and Mayor Wilfred Rosas.

“We’ve been very focused on not just battling the pandemic and testing and getting supplies out and now vaccinations, but also simultaneously staying focused on continuing our economic recovery because we saw great numbers a year ago,” Hochul said.

Local areas of interest in keeping the economy going were Athenex, which Hochul said is going to be begin its manufacturing soon. She said the company will be investing $1.5 billion over the next 10 years.

In addition, she noted recent improvements at the Dunkirk Pier as well as a $750,000 investment at the Fredonia Technology Incubator to help out small businesses. Nestle Purina Pet Care also is seeing a $2 million to upgrade the facility, which is going to help with 535 existing jobs. Also of note was 86 new jobs at Wells Enterprises, which also is going through a $87 million expansion.

“Those are just some of the things that have been ongoing,” Hochul said. “I was very nervous when we were in the throes of this pandemic and we knew that our revenues were plummeting, our expenses were soaring and I was concerned whether we could keep programs like the (Downtown Revitalization Initiative) going. The answer is yes. We believe that even when it’s a tough time for us financially as a state that you cannot stop investing in communities because you cannot make up for the lost time. We cannot lose a year of investing and so we’re going to continue doing that.”

Hochul spent some time discussing the hardest hit jobs in communities — restaurants, theaters and entertainment venues.

“There’s been a real hit to our economy and tourism, our recreation along both lakes,” Hochul shared. “There’s no reason that we can’t continue to look towards the future. What is our long-term strategy? This is where we’ve worked with the Regional Economic Development Council for a long time. We’re going to continue recruiting and continue investing as well as make sure that the people that live in Western New York have access to the best paying jobs and training to back that up.”

Vaccinations were also a huge talking point. “We’re vaccinating in what has been the largest effort since World War II. It’s amazing, I’ve been all over. The state of New York opened up mass vaccination centers, smaller vaccination centers, pop-up centers and pharmacies will be stepping up now which is great,” Hochul said. “We have to figure out now that when we look at a county like Chautauqua County there’s not huge urban areas, that accessibility is really important when we look at where people congregate.

“We have nowhere near the supply that we need to vaccinate the now nearly 10 million people that will be eligible as of Monday now that the CDC has recommended that we take care of people with underlying health conditions. That is going to put even more stress on a situation.”

Supply at one point in the state was 250,000 doses a week, it’s now at 300,000.

The losses in revenue for the state were also shared. Hochul discussed the enormous loss in revenues, sales tax revenues, having to pay for people coming from all over the country, supplies, having to set up tents to have mass testing sites and now mass vaccination sites

“(At) $15 billion, there’s no way New York can manage that alone and we believe that since that was not something that was unique to New York that Washington must treat this as a natural and federal disaster and cover the costs as if this were a hurricane,” she said.