RENSSELAERVILLE — After announcements were made that Cass Residential is changing from a state juvenile detention center to a training facility for state workers, Cass employees are speculating about their future.

Darcy Wells, spokeswoman for the Public Employees Federation, said this week Cass employees were unofficially asked where they would prefer to be redeployed.

The facility employs 33 employees, State Assemblyman John McEneny said last month.

Cass’s mission change violates the state’s labor law, which requires a state agency to give a 12-month notice when making significant service or public staffing changes, Wells told The Enterprise earlier this month. The law was enacted last year.
"We have a lot of concerns and a lot of questions," Wells said this week.
"Our biggest concern," she said, "is that half of [the employees] are from the area".They live there, have families there, and shop there, and that’s where they want to stay," she said. The agency, she said, has been sending mixed messages since changing from a juvenile detention center to a training facility.
"Everyone is perplexed," she said.
Brian Marchetti, spokesman for the Office of Children and Family Services, the state agency that runs Cass, said earlier that Cass employees would remain on site and be "canvassed for voluntary redeployments."

Following the escape of a 15-year-old from the facility in November, area residents circulated a petition, which calls for the facility to close. Seven youths escaped in two years, and a Cass kitchen worker was raped at knifepoint.

Prior to Cass’s mission change, OCFS Deputy Commission Ed Ausborn and Cass’s director, Tim Kelso, attended Rensselaerville’s February town board meeting and outlined planned security measures, which included a perimeter security fence.
"The reasons for the decision [to change] included the need for another training site," Marchetti said earlier, adding, "We currently have an excess bed count in our facilities. As well as the savings that can be achieved by not putting up the fence."