Public Health, Safety & Environment Subcommittee - Regular Meeting

okay good evening everyone it is 606 on 212 2025 welcome to the public health safety and environment sub commmittee meeting we apologize for a bit of a delay um having had to deal with some technological issues but Miss India has gotten us all together so we're ready to begin and on the call to order we have counselor Lloyd counselor Cooper counselor Oliver and coun Mahan as well as I see our oh Deputy Mayor Harington has joined us um as well as um our department heads Town attorney and Deputy Town manager I think I've got everybody so we'll roll into the agenda at this point um I do ask if we could start with the um Pledge of Allegiance I would greatly appreciate it council meeting tradition and I thank you for accommodating me a pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep stand indivisible liy and Justice thanks Council M okay so we're going to move right on into the meeting uh with Chief ham police Department update thank you sir take it away let's see here uh see if I can get my screen share fully here all right so crime stats look pretty good I don't know I have this uh

big uh display isue right in the middle of my screen but um we we can't see it Chief you have like the slideshow up there but if you click that thing it's just blocking everything that I can see but um the stats look good for the month crime continues on a downward Trend um and uh happy to see that uh so uh talk to the supervisors and the officers last week uh commended them on the job that they did in in 2024 for uh you know we backto back years now with the double digigit crime reduction um really focusing a lot of work on Larsen uh because that's the area that we have been uh struggling with in in particularly around capaco Plaza uh so you'll see that we've had many more patrols there um also uh trying to um assist our our Public Safety professionals at the fire department with uh fire lane parking issues uh that's been a particularly difficult subject over the past couple months uh and a lot of people are very um uh passionate about the subject so we're going to continue our effort there um at cacco Plaza uh as well as more towards the center of town we're seeing it um unfortunately because of the cold weather I think we're seeing it uh in all of our uh commercial plaz throughout town but uh back to the stats they look good um we did have a couple uh noteworthy uh incidents in the past um month we had a robbery uh over in cacco Plaza uh Chase Bank uh two people uh one driving the getaway car one went inside the bank um we do have good Intelligence on that case I can't give too much

information on some of these but I can tell you that I'm very confident in that case and in the detectives that are handing handling it uh and uh we're moving ahead um two burglaries uh of note uh the first one was the one that was well publicized that was the attempted theft of the ATM machine at Walgreens back on the 24th right in the center of town um uh officer beum was on patrol uh actually saw the car the the Mercedes uh truck in the parking lot uh realized through a crime bulletin and that it match the description of a vehicle that had done a similar ATM theft in Enfield only week before um he pulled in uh the uh uh asants or the the suspects rather um jumped in the car fled at a very high rate of speed um on Park Avenue so we weren't able to pursue them based on the the type of crime um and they got out of town uh similar uh crew has hit two other locations in Branford and hamon so we're working with our regional Partners to try and uh identify who they are so detective Um Zack o'bright has that case doing a very good job uh we also had a burglary looks like it was an inside uh deal uh Petty cast stolen from a drawer over on Highland Drive uh we are working with them on that um and uh hope for a positive outcome again Larsen are down 17 is a good number to report on for the month uh seven or 11 of those are shoplifting primarily from our our capaco Plaza area we had four Auto thefts with no apparent pattern in those um did talk to all shift all three shift uh staff members um and uh just continuing the focus there um we have

five police officer vacancies um Lieutenant Matthew suly retired on January 31st uh we are unfortunately looking uh projecting that we'll lose liono Rodriguez who is separating from us in April he's going to pursue a career out west uh not Western Connecticut but Western United States with the United States Marshals service um so we certainly uh will be losing a good man there um did interview two candidates last week both show uh a lot of Promise uh Terry King from Bloomfield Dustin mendenhal from Enfield uh looking at uh starting them in April at the next Academy at uh at Meridan State Police Academy um we have two recruits um who are in the police academy they'll graduate at the end of March and officer Riley feldblum is in his field training uh and is uh really showing some progress over the M last month uh we're hoping that he continues to uh progress in the right direction um motor vehicle accidents on public Road roads we had 58 they're down from last month uh by about a third um motor vehicle stops at 145 so those numbers are up we did have one DUI arrest for the month uh and officers did 182 traffic details um citizen traffic complaints we continue our emphasis on Maple and Burr Road at the Town manager's Direction um that Patrol conducted 52 motor vehicle details in January and uh 27 motor vehicle stops in that area um continuing the uh the the enforcement action there if you will uh we did put up some more signage some speed related signs uh Public Works is going to help us with some additional signage there while uh

engineering is working on a long-term traffic Comming uh plan uh Philly Street we've been working on for speeding complaints this about our third month doing that we had 19 motor vehicle details six motor vehicle stops that's a long stretch a road been problematic for years not really high high speeds but uh consistency among operators on that street Ellsworth Drive for speeding concerns uh during the commuting time times rather we put the speed Shield out there uh to gather some data uh Kenwood Circle and Westbrook Drive uh those are primarily stop sign violations during Community hours um and those uh motor vehicle details have been assigned to Control Officers in the area Crest View Drive uh we got some uh few complaints on uh on traffic related issues we had 10 motor vehicle details uh assigned to Crest View one motor vehicle stopped in January we did put the uh speed Shield out there it did show a very slight uh problem there at the 85th percentile for vehicles I think 85th percentile they're about 2 miles per hour over um I'm sorry they're about five 7even miles per hour over five is kind of the the the ceiling that we use uh when we start to to do some additional enforcement uh so it met the criteria um so officers have been deployed there and we'll continue to monitor that going forward uh citizen complaints there were two complaints during this reporting period uh against officers both complaints are being investigated by their immediate supervisory Personnel they didn't re reach the threshold to be assigned as a Internal Affairs investigation they were minor complaints uh and they are in the in the course of being reviewed now we also had three incidents involving use of force uh all Co all those cases are in review and I'll be able to uh report on those next month the investigation just simply

aren't completed yet our mental health clinician uh 18 calls for service uh five evaluations at the request of the police department uh there were three referrals to the clinician one juvenile referral uh and three voluntary uh calls in Bloomfield volunteer ambulance continues to do an outstanding job uh their December monthly training was the annual bloodborne and hazardous materials course uh each bva member was also provided a copy of the town's exposure control plan uh and everyone uh from the police department and bva have been offered the hepatitis B vaccine as part of our OSHA compliance um action since an inspection uh in late 2024 there's been an increase in new volunteers for over the last month which is a great Trend uh Ellen's doing a great job up there recruiting people um she's doing outstanding work there incentives were issued to the volunteers for the shifts worked in 2024 um and the tax abatement for current and retired volunteers was submitted to our tax department calls for service for the month of January were at 81 uh and total revenue for the month of January approximately 90,000 okay do we have any questions in the room any questions in the room regarding the report any questions online there we go I'm looking but I'm having to scroll across the screen okay Deputy Mayor Harington by way you're on mute sir probably a bad analogy fire away I'll try another one next

time well thank you very much uh Madam chair uh just to say that I I'm really uh elated with uh the improvements that we're seeing you know throughout the city throughout the town um and um hopeful that you know we're able to continue I I just wanted to mention and this is probably more for our seniors uh there seems to be a scam related to CVS CVS is sending out emails obviously not just our Bloomfield CVS but in general right and they're they're giving away items and all you have to do is pay for the shipping but what I found was from that one transaction they charged me five times and then there was another charge and there's no numbers to be able to to track it down so for our seniors and for our residents in general just to be mindful of those kinds of things because these scams are are in so many different Arenas and I just wanted to bring that to the Forefront thank you I'll bring it up to the detective division to tomorrow and my talks with them make sure we're tracking on that obviously they're not only doing seniors uh so try and uh try and make sure that we have our eye on the ball yes thank you thank you yes and and glad to hear that there's a downward trend for 2024 so please do keep up the good work we thank you very much um Chief we have a hand two hands up Council Mahan sorry about that um I I know uh on the note of the downward Trend um and excuse me for not not being there I probably won't be participating much because my the congestion everything is like off the scales today um feel better

thank you very much sir um do you uh what are those I I didn't hear if you said it what are those uh percentages I know you said we have two double digigit declines um but just so folks know because you know with the high-profile incidences that that have happened recently um there's a sentiment that's felt that crime is more rampant but that's contrary to what the facts are showing right it it's a perception versus reality thing uh but you know I I understand the perception I saw some of the comments on social media um we had in a very short span of time we had the burglary at pastaeria I always mispronounce that name so you know and uh and and I hope you can understand a lot of these cases I try to give you as much information as I can in a public venue right knowing that the bad guys might be watching at the same time so uh We've made a lot of progress on that case I have a very high level of confidence that we're going to uh succeed in that case soon um then we had the bank robbery uh over at Chase Bank again that case the detectives are doing an outstanding job uh we're moving at a very good Pace there um and then the third was the ATM uh uh attempted uh theft uh you know officer beum was in the right place at the right time uh very unfortunate that it happened uh but he did some really good police work observing the car uh seeing you know recognizing through an intelligence bulletin that um that could be the vehicle uh that was doing something nefarious pulled in the parking lot they saw him got out of there immediately you know not the best case we you know we want to try and prevent these things before they happen um but he was in the

right place at the right time now every area of crime uh in Bloomfield is down this year was down last year uh was down the year before we're on a three-year Trend Larsen is the area that we've seen the greatest uh uh reduction in numbers uh because it's the area that we had the greatest challenge to be very hon and and members of this committee uh and those of you who historically have been on the Public Safety Committee have heard me talk about two areas that's larsy predominantly from uh capaco Plaza um Lowe's Home Depot Stop and Shop um and Burlington Coat Factory in particular um and auto theft a lot of the auto thefts were um uh youth coming across uh Town Line from other towns uh stealing cars and then uh abandoning them using them for Joy rides using them for other activities abandoning them in the city and some of our surrounding towns we've seen that area a bait a bit come down we've also seen lares come down significantly a lot of that is seasonal and weather related um but we're trying to keep our eye on the ball I have a detective assigned to the Harford auto theft task force we're working in conjunct with our regional Partners to try and uh you know get to the bottom of who it's I always tell people when you get a pattern of auto theft or Larsen it's not a hundred people stealing a hundred things it's usually five or six people stealing a 100 things you know so if you can find out who they are you can stop the patterns and you can make a big impact um really talented people who work for me um some of those cases that I told you about the burglaries and the the robbery um were going to those uh and hopefully make a big impact there so

I hope that was a comprehensive answer for you yeah that that was great Chief um when you have a chance would you be able to uh get us like the specific uh percentage uh decrease or um perhaps uh put it out on the Bloomfield PD Facebook page I would love to share you know those statistics that there's that three-year decline Trend um sure sent out the the year decline was sent out in the agenda package um I got it to India and then I'll I'll try and put those numbers down and maybe we can get it on the web page to make sure that it's publicized thank you Chief uh the last thing is um I've been meaning to ask this question we used to get uh I think they were called like unusual incident reports or something of the sort um I I haven't even though there have been unusual incidences um is that uh is that something that we can expect uh moving forward or is that no longer a thing no it is a thing uh I can I can certainly uh run that by uh the town manager on the distribution of those um it is the unusual occurrence report is typically a briefing for uh command level Personnel in the police department you know so that when I get in in the morning um something happened overnight it's brought to my attention immediately and I can fill in the manager and the deputy manager uh ASAP so uh I'll talk to them about uh the distribution Circle if they want to widen that uh and we'll go from there okay thank you I didn't realize that um that that changed because in my last term the last few years serving on this coun so I I uh was always used to receiving those unusual occurrence

reports and uh it was good to be able to be updated on what's happening in our community um even if there are items that you know we of course don't want to be there but just to just to have that information that knowledge there from as a decision maker in the community it's it's very key so hopefully that uh that discussion can bear some fruit that allow us to get those reports again sure and and the only ones that I that I have never um uh circulated and that's a matter of law are those uh typically that have protected information whether it be the identity of juveniles um sexual assault victims Etc that uh we I'm bound uh not to release but certainly I can I can talk to the manager about widen in the circle thank you sir thank you Council Mahan Deputy Mayor is that a legacy hand no it is not uh thank you I just wanted to uh reiterate um the the importance of what uh councilor Mahan has just uh brought up because I do remember receiving uh these notices um uh pretty often before and it was very informative and helpful um so I i' certainly uh like to encourage you know the return of that as well okay yeah and certainly the the the term unusual occurrence is not is a is a is my term right I my my 20 years in Harford before coming to Bloomfield it was a form that circulated among the upper Command Staff because you couldn't follow uh you know 120,000 people in the city and and and the sheer volume of activity that happened by going through daily reports so we got a a morning briefing on everything I brought that to Bloomfield uh 14 and a half a little 14

years ago um and it's a good um it's a good way to brief at least the command staff and and man Town Management on what happened the night before it could be anything from an animal being euthanized uh to a a a town vehicle being in an accident something happening at one of the local schools or you know a part one crime it really runs the gamut um but it's usually what I tell the supervisors is if it's something you think I should know about when I walk in the door in the morning put it down in an unusual occurrence report thank you Chief thank you Deputy Mayor and Council Mahan and and in my tenue here yes we have received them at times more than others and I think it also has depended upon the nature of the incident whether it was more significant or maybe it wasn't and additionally like you just indicate chap um depending on the parties who were involved their age or the sensitive nature of it or um not to disclose information that may uh interfere with the investigation at the level it's at so I do understand that there's going to be times we'll get more of those reports and then there will be times that some will be withheld so um thank you Council Mahan I do leave you Chief and Aton manager to work that out and Council Cooper I'm so sorry thank you for waiting of course thank you uh Madam chair uh hey chief good evening uh thank you as always for your reports always you know uh uh great insights a lot of information uh into the point and I I appreciate that um just I wanted to ask you a question about uh I know you said you were five officers down uh and you have two more who will probably um be rolling off uh one out

west in a retirement so that leaves Seven slots that would leave Seven slots but you do have two who are on boarding right we are down I I included lieutenant suple in that five that we are down but but that can be a deceiving number so we are we are we have five vacancies on the rooll right now all right okay yeah um but even in the full-time staff that I have uh one is in field training which means that he's graduated the police academy and he's working with a with a training officer in the field uh to it basically Hands-On training right okay that happens over a period of 12 weeks unless there's a a noted discrepancy or deficiency and then we can extend that time period um I have two officers two candidates I should say that are in the police academy um and they are they are scheduled to graduate at the end of March so they're included in our full-time staff now the two that I just hired um the gentleman from Bloomfield and the gentleman from Enfield uh if they're successful I gave them what we call a conditional offer of hire which means I think they're good for the police department but they have to go through three mandatory uh Statewide tests that's a a polygraph psychological evaluation and a full physical if they pass those they'll be scheduled to attend the academy in April that that will that will leave us with three vacancies after that okay you know she I mean that uh you know the work being done to uh fill the vacancies is is you know necessary but also uh great work uh in doing that and I do have a question for you are you know our candidates normally are is it is it

attraction rather than promotion um do candidates just see that you know hey Bloomfield has openings and that's how they found out or is there something that human resources can share with with you how these people come about to to to to find Bloomfield and to want to be candidates or is there an active uh role that uh maybe um in the promotion that uh not only BPD but uh Bloomfield HR uh plays in that I mean there are a number of schools and other places uh you know whether they be Military University of New Haven uh they have great law enforcement uh C so you know for me I think it's more um uh could you or are you doing as much recruiting um events and attractive attracting events U as we could I know that there you know certainly there's a shortage in the State uh in general uh in law enforcement in general but um I I would you know just gather that there are still quite a large number of of people and young people who who want to serve um you know in a in a law enforcement um role um it's a great field um you know but uh is there a way or is there something like that I know it's kind of roundabout where I'm going but no I understand the question it it's a very broad answer um you know uh and we worked uh well let me start this way uh Human Resources working with the police department I think does a very good job of casting a wide net um towards the applicants that we're looking for um unfortunately applications to law enforcement agencies not just regionally or Statewide but nationally are way down

they're down over 70% from where they were only three years ago um in addition to that one of the problems that we've we've seen re uh recently you've heard me comment on it probably over the past year is that police departments are recruiting from other police departments something that prior to three to four years ago we never saw that um but now uh they are raising they're all short-handed we're all short-handed um and they're they're raising the stakes they have uh hiring incentives they have recruiting incentives we lost uh Jonathan Sykes last month to or two months ago to to Newington uh got a $5,000 signing bonus and for every officer that he can bring along with him he gets another bonus so the you know and this it's not the only Town not the only city in Connecticut that's doing that uh everyone is trying to recruit what we consider or we what we term certified officers those are we don't have to go through that training phase that I just outlined in my previous answer I can get someone from another jurisdiction I'm doing the same thing right I brought on a couple people one last year trying to bring one on the next month um from another agency um it's it's just the way of doing business now but it is it is a very competitive environment um I can tell you from uh inside the profession Bloomfield has a very good reg uh reputation for having uh very well-trained uh and well screened officers um so they are very attractive candidates outside of Bloomfield I talked about the manager with that or talked to the manager about that on how we can try to um you know

instill some local loyalty uh keep them to stay incentivize them to stay um because it's you know years ago you used to lock them into a when I was in Harford you locked them into a 20-year pension and good bad or in different you know whether they were great or bad you kept them for 20 years which probably wasn't the thing um now uh they can take those with them you know they can go to other agencies they can buy into programs we had an officer last year left uh and bought into a a pension system bought 16 years accredited service towards a 25y year pension like how do you compete that that's that's pretty difficult so so the answer is the answer is much broader than I can give you in just a two minute response right certainly and I understand that um you you you guys have internships uh or anything of that nature I don't explores we do typically during the summer months uh the Explorer Program we've been consistently trying to get interest in um we had a Cadet program a few years ago uh I had some very positive um experiences with the cadet program in Harford as a recruitment tool for bridging uh young people who are interested in public safety from age 18 to 21 when they could go to the academy um we had three four Cadets unfortunately uh none of them made it all the way through the program due to factors beyond our control okay okay but uh but I still believe and then the program unfortunately due to budget cuts a few years back uh didn't survive um through it's just prior to covid but uh but a very good program um you know really uh a really good um feeder if you will from the high school uh through uh because each one that we hired was was a

Bloomfield uh you had to be a Bloomfield resident um and they were they were good they were good so wow um hopefully we can start something like that up in the future yeah would love to see that but you know of course that's a some talks for budget but um thank you so much for for the feedback appreciate it thank you thanks for the question okay and councelor Oliver before you go ahead um Chief you just said how do we compete right rhetorically um and there was some conversations uh I want to go back to around fall of 2023 um where there was some uh incentive plan hiring incentive plan that yourself and a former um Town manager and uh Deputy Town manager um is on here as well that you guys may remember uh there was some nuances to the policy which um you know I I wasn't totally in agreement with all the verbiage but there was some um some ability to incentivize people to come here we don't want to be considered poachers you know like everyone's poaching us to death because we have such finely trained officers and qualified people um but that might be something that if you haven't already talked with it with um Deputy Town manager how and town manager Schwab uh could be something to revisit and I know that counil um mlar um had done a deep dive um of gathering information on what it would look like to try to regain a pension plan and it and it proved to be very very economically challenging I'm not going to say totally INF feasible but extraordinarily challenging and I had a couple of residents reach out to me you know with an outcry for uh the return of a pension plan so that we would be more appealing to have officers come and stay and so I explained to them that it was um a very Hefty Financial Endeavor not

that it's impossible um but certainly far more conversations that would need to ensue before we could do something like that so even if nothing else um maybe revisit the conversation with the town manager and uh particularly while we're looking at policies and procedures townwide I know the town manager has been working on that um those are some things that can be uh Revisited conversations that may bear fruit so thank you for that and counselor Oliver excuse me thank you chairwoman L hi Chief um I was just curious is there uh people not interested in the employment of being a police officer that's the supply and demand or are more towns hiring more police officers I'm trying to figure out where where is the draw of the supply and demand yeah it's it's it's a reduction in the number of applicants to the profession uh Nationwide um really started right around uh the time of the social justice movement George Floyd uh we saw it uh Nationwide the number of applicants really started to drop off um that and uh the economy has done rather well unemployment's been low uh when unemployment is low uh the the law enforcement profession tend tends to suffer um and we've been at consistently low unemployment rates for the past 78 years um and that's really been you know been a hit on the profession um locally uh in Connecticut I tell the story you know my well when I took the test to be a police officer 35 years ago now sound like my father um you know there were 40 openings and there were 1,600 applicants um luckily I got chosen in in one of those 40 I'm not going to say

which spot it it but it was it was high enough um and uh and when I started in Bloomfield the first test that we gave had like 350 applicants uh the last test we gave here I think we had 27 applicants so the numbers are the numbers are way way down um but it the the the bar for becoming a police officer becoming a police officer in Bloomfield is still the same it's a very high bar uh I have uh staff who do a very good job of screening people who should not be in the profession um and getting those people on that uh that we want to be police officers in Bloomfield um that are confident that are people of good character that are intelligent and that want to serve the community rather than being an enforcer in the community they want to be a guardian and that's what we're looking for thank you Chief I appreciate it uh just want to say you know you got know you guys are doing a lot of work out there and you know I understand you can't put yourself in way put officers life in danger when people are speeding off and doing crazy stuff um you know if if that's what happened I'm not sure exactly what happened I wasn't there um and you know I just want to give you guys the Kudos that you deserve you know and this the stats show it so you know good job thank you very much appreciate it any other questions are there any other questions seeing none thank you chief for your presentation thank you everyone for your questions um they were really good questions that lend themselves to um answers that may be uh questions in the minds of the public so thank you so much and we'll move on at this point to

the fire department updates um Center fire Chief is not here but I do have the report available I miss Rogers if you could share it on your screen okay thank you so much um there we go all right we're on the same page so calls for the month of course I just lost my copy this is incredible today with the technology on my end um and now I cannot read that that tiny um version but that's okay I'll give it a shot um I have my own copy so my apologies while I get situated um is it my screen Miss Rogers or is it all right so I'll give it a shot I have all my glasses calls for the month of January there were 48 calls for service four gas leaks minor or nature motor vehicle accidents both minor two Co calls and four electrical issues on 115 they provided members in the cold weather rescue suits to assist the town employees with testing the ice at Philly Pond also have flooded the pond with a couple of or have have flooded the pond a couple of times as well on 118 the tanker responded to the T of Windsor for a fully involved structure which ended up not being utilized at the scene and was moved to a firehouse to provide station coverage on 121 the tanker responded to the town of East Grand for a barn fire and were canceled in rout on 123 there was a dual response to Home Goods at 1415 Blue Hills Avenue for flue truck on fire which the Blue Hills fire department assisted with on 128 responded to the China of Windsor for a building fire with possible hazardous materials involved located at 111 great Pawn road we concluded 2024 with a total

of 612 calls for service compared to 2023 where there were 500 calls for the year projects the annual tax tax abatement letter was sent to the town of Bloomfield State of Connecticut annual boiler inspection was recently completed at all three firehouses and all passed within the past year the members have obtained a NFPA National Fire Protection Association physical completed for the Department which includes full physical cancer screening blood work and several other factors which are almost complete the NFPA definition is a nonprofit organization that develops and publishes codes and standards for fire safety we are also in the process of updating our building and apparatus inventories uh no Community involvement to report and I don't blame them because everybody was freezing but did a fantastic job around the holiday time at the parade so thank you all for your continued Community involvement training we have one member taken fire instructor one all members recently completed the required bloodborne pathogen class recently there was also a review of our cold water rescue equipment especially due to the significant ice on the ponds and rivers this winter there'll be a follow followup training event in the field with regard to Coldwater rescue recently we purchased what is called a fast board which is a smaller rescue board designed for RIT rapid intervention teams which is essentially designed for rescuing tra firefighters or trapped civilians a RIT team is designed through that serve a standby Rescue Team for the immediate search and rescue of any missing trapped or unaccounted for firefighter recently our members trained with fast board at the new Firehouse located at 360 tons Avenue utilizing the specialized indoor training wall for the first time the wall has different size window openings ladder tie downs and several other training feature and that is the report from Chief Bernard for Center

fire moving on in the agenda we could go over to Blue Hills fire chief Jones good evening everyone uh for the month of January the Blue Hills Fire Department responded to 51 calls for service uh there were no major incidents that occurred in our district uh the vast majority of the calls were unintentional alarm activations motor vehicle accidents with injuries and incidents involving natural gas uh Blue Hills fire department did respond to Windsor uh five times for either stationed coverage or to assist uh with structure fires in their town Up's fire department also responded to Bloomfield Center for Mutual Aid or dual response calls on five different occasions uh the training which is ongoing uh we trained on the following we conducted a walk through at ten mosy drive to find Federal canvas curvation facility we conducted a walk through at uh 48 East Newberry Road Wich uh they Manu Factor all types of wire and cables um to the military and Automotive specifications and other businesses we also conducted a walk through at 3:30 Park Avenue the senior center all to ensure safety regulations are followed and to get familiar with the building in case uh some type of an emergency arises over there uh the community outreach for the month of January there was none but we are in the planning process uh planning stages of the 2025 juneth uh celebration which

will be held on June 20th 21st and 22nd of June and that concludes my report all righty thank you so much Chief and I apologize for there any questions for me regarding the center fire district presentation or any questions for chief Jones on the Blue Hills fire district presentation any question okay and with the EMS system committee uh document up I can't see if there's any hands online Miss Rogers can you just check any hands online Deputy Mayor yes thank you um I just wanted to um comment uh to uh Blue Hills fire district to see if at all possible I could be included in uh some of those upcoming meetings for juneth yes I can um you know I can make sure that happens okay okay yeah thank you okay we're looking forward to an exciting one again yep thank you any other question last call for question okay moving on EMS report BL blumfeld thank you madam chair the the report which is on the screen I thought that rather than read it line by line I'd do a kind of quick summary and focus a couple points um in the summary part the uh the EMS committee held its regular meeting on

January 13th we received the usual reporting uh uh to the uh to the committee from about the bva related Matters from coordinator right white uh from the bva Coordinating Committee members Jay Daly and the know Co new co-chair Ted Rogers for myself as to this subcommittee uh and from BBA fund President Dan Rosenthal uh the substance of the reports was largely routine as bva is busy operating smoothly uh the volunteers Coordinating Committee is handling standard matters the bva fund is doing well in fundraising and biting its time until the new ambulance uh arrives to give it to the town um that's still a year and a half to two out however uh two items of note came up at the meeting that I thought I would mention here uh first the committee was pleased to hear that the town manager is looking to have all Town employees trained in CPR uh that would be excellent and it's certainly hoped that the town will make good use of the bva volunteers training program in doing that and second we received what's a uh periodic uh report um alerting the committee to the upcoming expiration of the AMR paramedic and backup contract uh that expires I believe in June we were pleased to hear that not only Chief hammock and coordinator white uh but our town manager and town attorney were geared up on this critical part of bloomfield's ambulance services as you probably know the AMR contract provides the param Medics which

we must have for our paramedic level service and also provides the primary backup in a ready status uh for when our ambulances are not available and an ambulance is needed so this is key to key to our service and uh it's great that our leaders are on top of this need um that about covers the report from the EMS committee thank you thank you so much Lou are there any questions in the room and I see no questions or hands raised online okay we will go on to conservation energy and environment committee chair update Paula Jones great good evening and I will follow Mr blumenfeld's lead I will not read the report verbatim um the committee last month reviewed uh or finalized its priorities review for the next year um we've provided a list that shows the categories they remain the same but we added and subtracted a few initiatives to reflect what we've gotten done and what we want to focus on going forward um I do want to point out two things um we really need to um update the measures of electric of um Municipal electricity usage um because in terms of our climate emergency um energy plan when we did that report we basined greenhouse gas emissions and we used I believe 2019 for the schools and 2021 for the other Municipal operations in town so to the degree we want to start um implementing actions and measuring our progress um we need to make sure that we have a way of

measuring and keeping track of you know how we're doing on a go forward basis so that is a priority for us this year um it's session right now the legislative session we actually have Lori Brown from the Connecticut league for conservation voters coming tomorrow to give us um kind of a rundown and highlights on what the key environmental issues are this session and we will continue to monitor that and if there's something we feel um it's important for the council to weigh in or the town to weigh in on we will um advise you to do that um the big thing I think we really want to spend some effort on this year is a focus on extreme heat education and um really trying to do some Outreach to the public um in partnership with our health district um three of our members Miss Bowden uh miss giac and miss white um are taking the lead on this particular initiative and the idea is like what are the ways first of all to educate people on the um danger and the risk of exposure to extreme heat um I've been reading I've been reading some of the materials that have been provided and it's actually pretty frightening um you hear about people dying in extreme heat people can go through an incident but um actually suffer long-term Health impacts and chronic Health impacts and um I learned some things I wasn't aware of so what we want to do is um figure out kind of you know what are the things we can um alert the public to um what pound preparedness you know plans are there for addressing heat

emergencies and in particular you know how do we how do we find out what we don't know um we came up with a list of questions and a few of them are are included here in the report you know does the town have metrics on warming Center and cooling center usage that would be a good thing to know which town residents are most vulnerable and what are their needs maybe what we need to do is have some kind of community Forum where we try to get that information directly from residents and talk to them uh can we find out what the town has in place for response plans uh for extreme heat events and other public health emergencies and you know probably the most critical question is beside the health district um to whom we will defer on any kind of material we put out there because we want to make sure we're consistent and accurate who should we be talking to on Town staff you know um Senior Services came to mind in terms of you know having a good view into what senior's needs are so um cc is really looking to probably some of the people on this committee to get a sense of how do we get the information that we need to try to be effective as an Outreach um extension um for the C so th those are the highlights um there's a number of upcoming CC events I've got them listed out here um April is a big month because we've got Earth Day we've got Arbor Day um Arbor Day we will be really focusing on because um we applied for Tree City certification at the end of December um I think we will get it um I shouldn't say that I'll Jinx

I'll jinx us but um we're now actually moving on to 2025 and planning what activities we need to do in terms of recertify at the end of 2025 so Arbor Day is something um that we always recognize we need to recognize as part of the certification and we are likely going to do something in partnership with track Rock ringe Land Conservancy on Hawk Hill Farm um we're going to be opening a tree Trail there the town holds a conservation easement on that property so it's really a nice way to do a big event and kind of Leverage The Partnerships um in in summary I will just make the comment that we really are trying to leverage Partnerships with other groups and entities in to such as the health district uh Philly Park committee um because potential overlap um with their grand opening in Arbor Day um and certainly um TR Park Ridge Land Conservancy so uh that concludes my report um except for the fact that or actually our next meeting is tomorrow the report says March 13th I'm getting ahead of myself um February 13th is our next meeting tomorrow and then uh we'll be meeting a month out on March 13th thank you that concludes my report thank you very much are there any questions in the room any questions online okay seeing none we will move on to director crows from West Harvard health district yep good evening um can you hear me okay good evening y good evening okay um so we're continuing to see uh peak in flu cases um our flu cases have increased since the last time we spoke in January there are approximately 3,735 cases in Connecticut uh last week

versus the 2942 the the week before um flu like illness is currently responsible for almost 6% of emergency department visits in Connecticut flu hospitalizations have increased significant significantly from December to January and have remained consistent around 250 hospitalizations um we are still seeing some RSV and covid peak in also mid January and we are since seeing a widely decrease um in cases for both um what we are seeing is flu type a um if you don't know they what they do for flu every year the makeup of the flu vaccine um is a little bit different and what they do is they look at the previous year's cases in order to make the flu vaccine for the upcoming year um so the last couple years they've kind of we've seen increases in in flu flu a um so what we've been doing our epidemiologist um has been working with our long-term care facilities and schools trying to decrease uh cases within the school we do see a lot of cases of neuro virus right now um so we're encouraging people if you have any vomiting diarrhea please stay home wash your hands cuz that's really how it's transmitted um so when we see these cases pop or increase our long-term care facilities and assisted living are great they call us we really try to isolate it um and um increase cleaning on units classrooms uh High contact surfaces such as door knobs elevator buttons drinking water fountains really trying to decrease it um and slow the spread down excuse me we're still providing vaccines we still have people oddly enough coming to us for covid and flu vaccines um you know why we're seeing that is because people were sick over the holidays and so they didn't want to

get their flu shot after they just got the flu we still encourage people even though you might have already tested positive for flu and covid to still get the vaccine because just because you got the flu you don't know what type you got um so it could be influenza A B and so again we we still encourage you to get vaccinated even though you might have tested positive for Co or flu um adding to our list we did just add the RSV vaccine um we weren't um providing that before but we again we're seeing an a a demand in that people asking for it so we did go ahead and purchase some vaccine to to offer that to the community we do see people from other towns um not just west Harford and Bloomfield one of the reasons is is um we are part we are part of the children um for vaccine program and so we um vaccinate children um you know under the age of 18 not many providers still do that um especially if people don't have insurance and so we offer the lowcost vaccine as part of the state initiative to get vaccinated um so I don't know if I've ever shared that with you before so some upcoming events I've mentioned too we're still in the process of planning with Bloomfield Youth and Social Services for an event in April and this is is really going to be supporting youth prevention efforts providing um harm reduction activities uh resources education materials and prevention focused giveaways I did go ahead and approve um a scholarship for the summer counselor and training program which will be raffled off um again that's um really a a great thing to be offering to the community so I'm excited about that um we did finally schedule our Sugar Rush program um in March and also the partnership with americore and Community Health Center for affordable healthare options and

really that's just helping people navigate health insurance um Medicare what types of questions to ask your provider if you're not feeling well um so again that's a great program um that we're bring into Bloomfield um still on the agenda for scheduled upcoming scheduled events is our annual cancer prevention Fair um that's July 31st and again the partnership with americore coming back in may we still are offering and running um the free diabetes Workshop um again people ask for that so we've continued to offer that on a routine basis and we do have free ridon test kits for Bloomfield and West Harford residents um available in our office and that um concludes our report than director call are there any questions in the room any questions online okay seeing none I'm going to open the floor to any other public safety concerns are there any other questions or concerns in the room any residents I can't see uh the chair so I don't see anybody miss Rogers is anybody in the room yes I have Miss Nancy Bowden thank you do I have the mic on yep okay um I am a member Nancy Bowden 7 Scotland Road in town and I am a member of the C but tonight I'm speaking mostly as a private citizen um I as mentioned I am working on the extreme heat project but I'd also like

to kind of Zoom back out from that and talk more specifically about disaster preparedness um I remember in the Years following the collapse of the towers on 911 that many towns and businesses created disaster plans a lot of them were around business disruption data backup that sort of thing U I think in the towns evacuation routes I did try to find out if we have an existing plan I wasn't able to find anything there about a year ago that I was asking um other than a FEMA checklist which is always good to have and I know we have our shelter protocols and our cooling and heating centers um but um I'm not going to say too much about Los Angeles but last fall we did have fire some wildfires in the state and I uh live not that far away from some that were up in Grand Bay or East Grand Bay and I realized it really wouldn't take that much in the right weather conditions a spark and high winds for us to have um an impending disaster in town so my question really is for for uh the town and for probably most of the uh entities represented on this committee uh do we have a disaster plan do if we do do we know where it is does it need updating does it reflect the current uh Town staff and subcommittees do those people know what their roles are um I know we have an emergency alert system in town um I'm pretty sure I've signed up for it but I don't know if we've ever tested it and I don't know whether everyone you know we have really good saturation of people being on that alert system which I think is mostly a cell phone alert um so just a bunch of questions that I have about whether we should

be finding whatever we have um augmenting it reviewing it for the current um I would say climate threats in particular um making sure residents know about this where they should be going for information how they can get uh tied into alerts what are the safest evacuation routes out of town even should that happen um we did talk about whether neighboring towns have similar plans or something that we could you know work together with because obviously we're right next door to towns where we might be evacuating too or they may be coming to our town um so that's just my um my comment that I would be great if the town took a look at what how prepared we are for a disaster and then just a footnote on the issue of scams since that came up uh my mother was very came very close to being scammed so ever since then I've been watching and listening to a lot of scam information and I don't know whether we've done any education in town but I would certainly recommend I think we have done some yeah it's always an ongoing thing scams change all the time so I think um offering that kind of resource would be also useful not just for elderly folks thanks thank you Miss Bon for your comment um I defer to um Deputy Town manager how and the chief regarding uh disaster plans and if you could elaborate just a little bit and again I mentioned earlier that since Tom manager has arrived he is doing a deep dive into all things Bloomfield including all the Departments and what they're doing and seeking a continuity plan so that he can ensure that we have best practices in place uh for every aspect of our town operations and so I'm sure that included within that is um emergency disaster

plans but I think um Deputy Tom manager how or the chief could speak better to that and Amy and um or director kuss and Council Cooper I will get you in one second if either you Chief or um Deputy how could respond to that briefly sure I'll go first uh we do have several plans uh we have the uh Emergency Operations plan uh that the police department operates under uh to address all manner uh of emergencies that could affect the town uh the latest emergency that we um responded to was the covid-19 pandemic uh where the police department took the lead in marshalling the resources of all Town departments and the Bloomfield Health District uh and you know while we certainly had a lead role in that uh worked with Amy and her folks over at the health district to really uh try and address that very unique challenge um years ago in 2011 uh which I would call the second biggest was the the October storm that hit the state uh and hit Bloomfield particularly hard um so we've been you know working underneath that guideline of plans uh since my tenure um we are mandated by the State Department of Emergency Operations to have a plan to update it every three years I believe we just updated it I think it was the last year um the school system has an emergency plan uh that is reviewed not only by myself and the town manager but the the fire departments as well we all sign off on it to ensure that their plan is thorough uh and encompasses all possible threats that can come to uh the Department of Education uh Public Works addresses the

ha Hazmat mitigation plan uh environmental mitigation plan um we do have uh emergency and um what I call non-emergency notification systems um we have used uh during covid our everbridge system uh that we can reach out to every registered phone user uh in the community we try not to do that often only in the case of emergencies and then we also have uh I believe it's Civic plus that we work on with India uh and her group um to get out uh Mass notifications that is a voluntary system where people sign up voluntarily uh for what they want to be notified in town and from the police department we'll send out traffic alerts things like that um but we can certainly work on having uh uh several different layers of notification to the community when she talks about evacuation routes Etc um that information would probably be given out or would not probably but would be given out in a case-by case basis depending on the emergency depending on the area of town uh the nature of the emergency you know if you had a if you had a a commuter uh airline that uh was uh had a disaster in town in the northern part of town let's say you would of course uh evacuate South if you had a chlorine gas leak at one of our manufacturing plants we'd have to look at which way the prevailing winds were blowing and evacuate in the opposite direction so there's a lot of factors that come into play and we would put that information out to the Community uh as soon as we got it uh through a mass notification system I hope that was a good answer sounds good to me um and not even to speak of the accreditation at public works on the PD it also going to make you have layers of um policies regarding

things like that so thank you Chief tell how did you want to add anything okay um Council Cooper if you don't mind director kuss um did you want to add to the conversation or have a question yeah I do if I just wanted to add so the health district um also like the chief had mentioned um we do have emergency response plans Melissa Marquee is our emergency response specialist um she um works on National plans we did just get recognized for project Public Health ready um so we were part of uh the Harford region and crog for National recognition for um being ready for emergency responses like the chief mentioned we do review our plans um we review our plans um yearly um we also do sign off on our school plans as well and reviewing any emergency procedures we do participate in the emergency uh support function which is ESF 8 um again with the the region and the state those are requirements and we do participate in that um as the chief mentioned the last really big um incidence was covid-19 um and really every Department really played a key in that uh from Public Works to it to PD to fire um and I've always said both our towns stepped up when we needed um help and really made that function everyone did really know their role we do something also called just in time training um so right before you know whether it be a vaccination or an event um we're doing just in time training of what responsibilities are if ever needed we also have used the Medical Reserve core um and make requests we also if um we didn't have assets and needed assets we

would make a regional request is all also to the region um so we are I do feel that we do have great plans here we do review them um I can't always share them because there is information in there that I I can't share um but again we do review those yearly at the health district and if anyone had any additional questions um Melissa Marquee would be the best contact person at the health district to answer those thank you okay thank you director Kow um counselor Cooper yes thank you Madame mayor and forgive me I um actually had a restate that Madame mayor is not here tonight I mean I'm sorry madam chair um you forgive me blame it on on the sickness the medication yeah absolutely she does a fine job and she can keep that role go ahead ma' I understood uh this is actually for it was for director Cy but I was my phone I was unable to to take it off mute at the time uh director you you mentioned about um uh the uh offer of low cost uh shots for um whether it's for juveniles or and hopefully and you can this is part of the question that that extends to uh other folks um here in the town and I don't know if that's going to be here in just Bloomfield West Hartford or if that also extends to other people um uh and then I'm going to move on and say I did see the uh the offer of uh the radon test kits that are available and I don't think so I don't believe that we you would want to have everyone come and and get those shots whether low cost or no cost or anything like that is that because I saw the radon kits advertised but I don't see

the test kits adverti and the low cost of them is that just something that you guys do or is that something that you may want to do especially um and I'll tell you I'm being it's not from a selfish standpoint but now that I am uh sick from something it just came to mind that you know people may want to uh get these shots on a you know uh more so than they did before and the availability of course would be nice uh for them to to have I don't know how you know that's distributed I don't know if that's you keep it to a certain population or or what but maybe you could just give some insight to that please sure so the radon test kits are are free um we do every health department has the option to apply to the Department of Public Health to receive those um and so we offer them we put in a quantity I think it was 200 um and so it's those are yes first come first serve um previous years we've run out of those test kits and so um we do try to make another request for another round but um really those come from the state so if even if I make a request of 200 I might only get a 100 um so that's that's number one and number two the lowcost vaccines um again because we're enrolled in the vaccine for children program um those vaccines are $20 um for children under the age of 18 you don't have to be uh a resident of Bloomfield or west Harford um we get children from Enfield manchest simsberry um and so that's part of being enrolled in that program I can't offer um you know I can't charge someone more than that um if they didn't have insurance we

do Bill insurance so if you had Medicare or Medicaid husky um private insurance for adults 18 and above um you know we will Bill your insurance for that um during covid covid vaccine uh was free um about I want to say two years ago now I think we're going on um we had to start purchasing our own stock a vaccine so therefore I can't offer um you know free adult vaccines if you didn't have insurance um we do have a cash price and that's usually we do a comparison to what the pharmacies in the area are offering cash price for vaccines for um however if someone is in real need of it needs it whether it be a you know um a pbd or a teap um again I I work with them to you know if they truly need that and you know we we work with them um I don't want to ever turn someone away because they don't have funds to pay for a vaccine so we we do work with the individual on that did I answer your question I think there were two parts to it so I wanted to make sure I answered your question hi thank you thank you um director crowy that it does answer my question are we uh going to is there going to be an advertisement for those shots yes we have yeah we have sent one out um we did they also put it in the senior center newsletter um like I said we just started the RSV so we're updating the Flyers and posting that out so you should see that in about uh a few weeks awesome yeah awesome thank you so much no you're welcome great question thank you thank you all and when we just slide back really quickly to um disaster plans

and notification to town residents and otherwise um Miss Rogers would you have anything to add to the conversation oh I see Sharon raised her hand um I take thank you my apologies I was in the lady uh bathroom blowing my nose and I got a text but I ALS I heard that the chief spoke and then I came back at the tail end when Amy was talking but I believe um my text said the chief mentioned that we do have plans emergency preparedness plan um that includes all the uh key departments that are actually on this um call and also other key departments are senior social services department Public Works um that's updated um every uh couple of years um our key departments did continuity plans and in those continuity plans they also have updates on um their section of um preparedness so it's something that's always looked at I don't know um Chief um I haven't looked at your continuity yet but I believe it's probably also in there also yes so but it's something that's always in in h Forefront of the town and um before I I I went to the ladies room I believe um the lady that was speaking she talked about our um how to um I am sorry about um the is it 911 reverse I don't I kind of heard the tail end of it yeah Mass notification commun and um I'm not sure where we are with that Chief at one time we were looking to go to something else yeah it's it's right now uh India's department is is running it ons solve uh and we also have have our uh Mass notification system through everbridge that we use uh through our regional Partnerships with

the state so both and also to like is it code R yeah it's it's not City ready so we left cor red and we went to Civic ready okay okay all right so so we are there we are there thank you and my apolog apologies again okay um and Miss bden we thank you for the question Miss Rogers is there anything else you wanted to share regarding Mass Communications in emergency Readiness situations just really quickly going off of the um Deputy time manager's comment regarding our continuity books so when we did ours this year we have a crisis Communications plan and a team of people um and departments that we have established um to outline our crisis response procedure so it would be a step-by-step procedure for managing our Communications during the crisis and establishing a protocol for assessing the situations depending on what they are determining key messaging and disseminating that information um globally throughout the Comm so um it's ironic we're talking about this right now because when I had my continuity session on Tuesday with the manager um he wanted me to schedule a early spring meeting to bring all of these folks together which is in our crisis communication team to discuss exactly what you're talking about due to some of the recent disasters that we have had and once we have that meeting and determine determined where we're going to go from there we are going to develop a marketing and Communications plan um to educate the community about all those efforts so I thank you for your question okay sounds great we are prepared we are ready and we are planning for the future I love it I love it and thank you again for your question are there any other questions in the room any other comments or questions okay moving on to approval of the minutes can I have a motion to approve the minutes from January 8 2025 so moved thank you coun

m any takers on on a second I'll second all all in favor hi hi opposed abstentions saying none motion carries thank you and thank you all for coming out we will see you next month um it will as well be the 12th it's going to be March 12th same time 6 pm. for the public health