Public Health, Safety & Environment Subcommittee - Regular Meeting

Okay, let's start this again. It's 6:01 p.m. Welcome to everyone in the room and those watching to the Public Health, Safety, and Environment Committee meeting Wednesday, May 14th, 2025 at 6:00 p.m. We call this meeting to order. And as a roll call, we have myself, Councelor Cooper. Is there anybody else on line that may be on a side screen? Okay. So, not yet. I'm sure we'll have a couple other people as well as counselors joining soon so that we will establish a quorum. In the meantime, uh for expediency and another impending meeting, we're going to move conservation, energy, and environment committee to the top of the agenda this evening. Miss Jones, Chair Jones. Um, good evening and thank you very much for the accommodation. Um, just in terms of uh what's happened since I last reported out uh for April highlights, we had our Arbor Day celebration and um what was special about it was Bloomfield was celebrating its first Arbor Day as a newly designated Tree City USA. The occasion was the grand opening of the Hawkhill Farm Tree Trail in Bloomfield. Hawkhill Farm is owned by Trap Rock Ridge Land Conservancy and the town holds an easement on the on the property so it's kind of jointly managed. Um the land conservancy service area includes Bloomfield, Windsor, East Graanby, and West Hartford. We had approximately 80 people in attendance which was great. Um, one of the people attending was the DEP state urban forester Danica Drosski. Uh, she was there because of our new designation and she noted that

Bloomfield is one of only 24 Connecticut municipalities that is designated a tree city by the Arbor Day Foundation. Um, so that is a nice thing to know. Uh both Mayor Wong and Windsor Mayor Nett Black Burke helped cut the ribbon to open the new uh tree trail. And I did provide in the report a link to an article which which which was published in both the Bloomfield Messenger and the Windsor Journal um which has some nice pictures and um a little bit more information. Um I do want to note um that despite the positivity of the day um Sharon and David man who had planned to participate and we recognized um were absent which we thought was strange. We learned after the event that David had passed the night before. Um in addition to everything else David did for Bloomfield, he had served on the CEC. He continued to volunteer at CEC sponsored events like Shred Day. He was a key participant in the Trees for Bloomfield initiative and we will all really miss him. We already do. So, um that was the big event in April. Uh in terms of upcoming events, uh this Saturday from 9 to noon, we have our spring shred and small electronics recycling day at Bloomfield High School. Um, please enter on Crest View Drive and um, please bring a non-p perishable item for the Bloomfield Food Bank. Um, it's a good time to replenish the pantry. Um, June 1st, uh, our fifth um, annual Trees for Bloomfield photo contest registration will open. So, we'll be pushing that out and um, there'll be a reminder when registration officially opens. Um, what's nice is the Bloomfield Public Art Commission is a new co-sponsor this year. So, they will

bring, I think, some, um, maybe some new vitality and some fresh ideas to the contest. And then finally, um, on June 17th with Bloomfield Public Library, CC is hosting a webinar, um, at 6:30 p.m. on the dangers of extreme heat, what to know about heat, and how to stay safe. uh registration is up now on BPL's um website. So, uh there's a subgroup of CC working on that and there will be a lot of good information. I had reported out previously that they are checking in with um the health district to make sure that the information we share is accurate. Uh that concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you so much and thank you um for mentioning David man, a public servant in Bloomfield in many capacities um including previous town council. So we do honor and respect his memory and thank you for mentioning him and thank you for the update. Moving on to the police department, Captain. Yes, ma'am. I'll uh see about sharing the screen here for you. And hopefully everybody can see this our April statistics. Uh we had another good uh month in the books for 2025. Uh we did uh record two sexual assaults. Uh one uh aggravated assault. We had 27 total larsenies. 14 of those were shoplifting and two autothefts for the month. Now we are uh down 30% from last year at this time in April and our current year to date for last year to date we're down 31%. So we're definitely trending in a significant lowering fashion. Little explanation of the uh uh

part one crimes that we listed there. the sexual assaults. One was a foster care juveniles together. Um, one of the juveniles from the home uh there was a a touching molestation and uh the our detective unit is working with DCF to uh get a resolution out of that one. And then there was u an older uh caregiver um where is accused of assaulting the the person they're giving care to. And our detective unit is also working uh with them. They weren't in an institution. It was a private uh contractor uh situation. So it's not one of the institutions here in Bloomfield. The IRA assault was over on Grammy Street. Um there was a family dispute during a funeral home and our detective uh division is also working on that one. The um the victim uh did go into the hospital and um there was a some time before they can actually interview the victim to try to uh piece together, but uh it's a it's a known subject uh between the two. So it's not a stranger on stranger type of thing. Uh, of the large needs of the 14 shoplifterss, uh, again, the chronic ones are, um, Stop and Shop, Lowe's, Home Depot. We did make six arrests out of those 14. And, uh, we are stepping up the patrols in Kapakaco Plaza with some, um, designated personnel in there uh, in a in a um, auxiliary manner to try to focus there to try to deter some of that uh, behavior over there. And the others, uh, we are getting more credit cards and and internet kind of scams that people are falling for. And we'll continue to put that out through our community service efforts to try to enlighten the public about uh what to be on on the look for so they don't fall victim on

those type of things. There was one arson um did happen in town, but that was over on Skinner Drive. The fire department is probably going to uh touch bases on that, but it was a um kind of domestic situation where a dispute took place and uh the aggressor set on fire belongings to the uh to the other individual that um they were having a dispute with. So, we did uh treat that as a domestic situation. We did make an arrest on that one and that'll be going to court on on that side. So, it'll it'll be a conclusion out of that one. As for our personnel, uh we we still have four vacancies on on the books right now. Three in the uh position of police officer and we have one lieutenant. We do have a lieutenants list um for promotion. We just haven't uh we're still waiting to be able to uh move forward with that. It would have a trickle effect. We'll also need a valid sergeant list because then that that position will be filled from sergeant. So it'll be upward mobility for the ranks which uh they are all looking forward to. Hiring. We have two recruits right now attending the New Britain Police Academy and they're doing well in their status there. And we have also two other uh um officers that are in field training. So you have to you if you see um a two officer vehicle with two officers in one vehicle that's a training officer with the field traininee and um they are progressing quite well. So we hope to have them um out on their own within an expedited manner here and uh like I had previously mentioned there is a standing lieutenants list and a uh from a a testing procedure and a sergeants that uh we're looking to establish and be able to move forward with shortly. our traffic statistics. So, motor vehicle accidents on public roads, there

were 48. We conducted 412 motor vehicle stops. We um try to concentrate on the areas where we're seeing um well, twofold. One is what uh citizen complaints, but we'll get to a little bit. And the area I think is where we're seeing a high um concentration of motor vehicle accidents that we can use some enforcement to maybe uh deter some of those in the future. And we did have five DUI arrests. And throughout the uh town, we put out 231 specific uh traffic details concentrating on uh those areas of accidents and uh citizen complaints. We still uh continue to be out on Maple and Burr uh for speed. We did conduct 30 motor vehicle details right there in that area and uh did have 58 motor vehicle stops. The Kenwood Circle and Westbrook Road again uh complaints for speed and stop sign. We did put out um seven uh motor vehicle um details there and there were two uh motor vehicle stops for violations. And Graanby and Toby were also out there for uh stop signs and we did have 15 motor vehicle details there and they did conduct 20 motor vehicle stops from violations that they saw. Oops. And we have the uh various speed shields throughout town. You've probably seen them. Uh we have two concentrating on Maple Avenue to uh try to quell some of the speed uh complaints we're having through over there in both the northbound and the southbound direction. Uh we also have uh one over on Crest View Drive um which is the a solar one um over um by the um by the high school. And um we do get some limited data off that one. And we did uh we had a damaged

one that we were able to replace and we're working with uh public works to have it assembled and that should be out in the uh in the field shortly. We're also gathering data with our uh covert mode uh speed shields over on Mountain Road and over on Jackson Road. Uh we just have it in display mode. We had put it out there previously so we kind of know what the conditions are there but um we're putting it out there so the public can see it and the neighborhood can see it that we are aware and we're concentrating in their areas. Our mental health clinician continues to work with us is a huge success that um she brings to the organization and and well worth um the um the uh expenditure we have with the vendor. Uh there were 22 calls for service in the month of April with her. Uh there were seven that were police request emergency evaluations. The uh agency assist referral. There was one from um we had four that were voluntary committals where people were uh asking to go for seeking help. Two were uh were on juvenile status. two are unfounded and six of them there were no action required on her part. But uh still uh she has an intervention there with them and has positive relationships with all these and and hopefully um we don't get a reoccurring for the people that are kind of in distress. On to the Bloomfield Volunteer Ambulance. They had 169 calls for service in April and generating a revenue of $64,000. April's month in training was EMS Jeopardy. They made a little fun uh endeavor out of it where volunteers were able to showcase their knowledge and skills as EMTs. There is the bianual awards banquet that is scheduled for May 17th and it's going to be over at Gillette

Ridge and the vi volunteers will be recognized for their outstanding service to our community and it's always a positive gathering there. Preventative maintenance was conducted on all ambulance stretchers, trolleys, trolley systems and stair chairs and everything is in fine working order. Now the uh RFP submissions for the advanced life support and mutual aid coverage were due on um May 9th. Three submissions will be reviewed by a panel and a decision will be hopefully reached soon as to which vendor will uh be um given the award. And uh as I know has been mentioned in the past, but uh our coordinator, former Sergeant Ellen White and BBA coordinator Ellen White is has a retirement set for May 31st. And transitioning over to uh replace her is uh Sergeant Zachary Clamberg, who has been shadowing her and he's uh going to be taking on her role as EMS coordinator. And that concludes our public safety report for the month of April. Thank you, Captain. Quick question for you. Um, with Sergeant Clownberg taking over for Ellen White, that means that the PD is taking that role back under your umbrella. Uh, yes, it's going to be transitioning back to uh to a member of of the PD. I know they had trans transitioned out to um a civilian um when she uh retired first from the police department, but now the uh plan is well it's an interim um for now we have to put somebody there. Um I believe um it's still in the works. I think perhaps uh town manager Schwab can uh speak further on whether it's going to be an actual uh um transition to the um police department or um if we are going to pursue a um a

civilian for the case. I'm not sure on that one. Okay. Thank you. Because I know I as you mentioned previous to Ellen White, it was um a police department staff person that coordinated BVA. So, thank you for the clarification there. Much appreciated. Are there any questions? Did anyone else join us that I missed? Mr. Tommy Anager and Councelor Mahan and Councelor Oliver, thank you for joining us. And so I back up. My apologies. Uh, Chairwoman Jones. Is there any questions for for her? You know, I just jumped up to the front and got beside myself for energy environment committee. Any questions for CEC? Council Mahan. Um I I didn't have any questions, but I do want to thank her for uh for mentioning um David Man and and his contributions to our community even beyond his time on council. His passion for service didn't stop at at the day. It it extended beyond that. So, um, you know, in the interactions that I've had with him, he was he was always very, uh, warm, kind, and and willing to share words of advice with me. Um, so I I I'm very grateful that she mentioned that she mentioned him today and and gave him that that tribute. Thank you. Yes. Yep. Yeah, definitely. um in many many capacities has he served this community and we're grateful. Any other questions online in the room? Okay, so going back um any questions for the police department? Any questions on the police department update? No questions. Okay, we'll be moving on to

the fire department updates. Do we have an update from center fire district? Good evening, assistant chief, Simone. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you? Good, thank you. Evening, council, and everyone else. Uh, for the month of April, excuse me. We responded to 46 calls of service, a gas leak, a few power lines down, motor vehicle accidents. We did a uh dual response with Blue Hills for a basement fire on 80 on 8 Arthur Drive. We also responded to like the captain spoke of the Skinner Drive fire, excuse me, where the gentleman tried to uh burn her items and the fireplace and it self-extinguished. burned some of the paneling, a few there's some damage downstairs, m minor damage downstairs, but it self-extinguished because the um damper was closed. For projects previous mentioned, uh the model A has been prepared and returned to us in good running condition. We are currently in the planning stages for the openhouse celebration for the new company 3 at 360 tungstas. The event will be on Saturday, June 7th from 9 to 2 pm. There'll be a ribbon cutting ceremony as well as a blessing in the firehouse along with light refreshments being served. Also, both Firehouse districts, excuse me, both districts are in the planning stages for our 100th anniversary celebration in 2026, which will include a golf tournament, carnival with food trucks, fireman's parade, and possibly possibly a few other events. Community involvement, nothing

to report. For training, we had mo one member pass fire safety officer class. On Saturday, April 12th, we hosted a flashover simulator class at Company 3, which included a few hours of classroom as well as hands-on session inside a fire training trailer, which exposed firefighters to a simulated flashover. Class was attended by several of our own members. along with members from the Blue Hills Fire District Windsor uh Fire Department. So, a flashover in a term used by firefighters to describe the rapid transition in a fire where the heat and gases within a confined space ignite all combustible materials simultaneously. also described as a flashover occurs when all combustible materials in the room reach their ignition temperature at roughly the same time. So this was submitted by uh Chief Barner and presented by myself. Okay. Thank you so much. Yes, ma'am. And to open, I will piggyback councelor Mahan's comments from the other night by acknowledging Alan Goldstein from Center Fire for 45 years. 45, right? Yes. 45 years of service to the town of Bloomfield. So that's amazing when you think about your planning your hundth year celebration and he only he almost met half of that mark his service to the town at the fire department volunteering. Um I can't even imagine the number of calls he's gone on. But we do thank him for his service and acknowledge his um retirement as well as his fine service

to the town. It's amazing. Yeah. Team go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So are you guys going to do something special? So we did. Yeah. We tried to keep it uh in house due to you know cost and um it was nice. He was very appreciative. It it went very well. Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you for letting the public know that you duly honored him as well deserved. Any questions in the room? Comments online? I see council Mahan's hand. I um I just wanted to add um I found out from uh the deputy town manager that he also worked for the town of Bloomfield for 10 years. Um, so I mean this gentleman has had major contributions uh major contributions to the town. It's like I said once in a-lifetime uh contributions. You you rarely come across folks that have given decades of service uh let alone 45 years of service to a community. So, um, thank you, uh, uh, Madame Chair for for bringing that back up. Yeah, thank you for bringing it up on Monday is certainly, um, deserves acknowledgement. And we have any other hands. Oh, that yellow hand on the white wall, my apologies, Mr. Town Manager. Please, please, we welcome your comments. Uh good evening, Madam Chair and and counselors and uh staff and public. Um I also wanted to add to the praise that um that he also served the city of West Hartford as a law enforcement officer for a career as well. So uh just a magnificent public servant and and um stunning example of what Wright looks like in in public service. So a great great um um hero of

of Bloomfield, son of Bloomfield. So, the honor is ours to to know him. Thank you. I'll I'll pass the message along. Well, and and I've heard military as well. Yeah. Yeah. He has a he has an extensive background. He did. I can't. Okay. Well, not even in my dreams have I achieved half of what he has in his life. So, uh Shamar said once in a lifetime. Truly, truly, he's lived two or three people's lifetimes. So that is just incredible and it makes me smile. We're grateful for him. Any other comments, questions? I just had a brief comment. So on our organizational day, which will be occurring Friday, June 13th, if any of the counselors would like to come by to say goodbye to him, he will be um recognized at that event as well. Wonderful. Thank you for making that announcement. I will see what my calendar looks like and pray I can be there. Thank you. Okay, I think we will move on now to Blue Hills Fire District. Chief Jones. Uh good evening everyone. Uh for the month of April, the Blue Hills Fire Department responded to 31 calls for service. Uh there were no major incidents during that period uh as most of the cause were motor vehicle accidents with fluid releases uh minor injuries, fire alarm activations due to cooking or malfunctions of the alarm system and incidents involving open burning. Uh as assistant chief Simone mentioned, the Blue Hills Fire Department did respond to a small fire at on Arthur Drive that caused very minimal damage to a basement uh ceiling. and it was investigated by our fire marshall's office. Uh uh center fire

also assisted uh on a dual response with that call. Uh we also responded to two uh mutual aid calls and one dual response call into the Bloomfield Cent's district. As I reported in our last meeting, our membership for volunteers are continuing to increase. We have a total of about uh 10 volunteers prepping to take the fire class coming up this fall. As for training, it never stops. It's always ongoing. We never know what types of situations we're going to counter out there. But below, uh we've listed what we've done for the past, uh four Monday nights. Uh April 7th, we had a vehicle extrication training class. uh April 12th, as uh Assistant Chief Simone mentioned, we sent some people over to Center Fire uh to conduct a flashover uh drill. April 14th, we had awareness training on Nlloxxone and opioids from an instructor from the Bloomfield Health Department. April 21st, we did some training on uh sprinkler systems. Uh it was both classroom and practical evolutions that we uh conducted. And April 28th, we conducted training on ladders on buildings over at the Capacco shopping center for community outreach. Uh we were invited to the Quick River School to conduct and talk about fire drills and fire safety. Um and that pretty much concludes my report. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much. I swear you guys probably train as much as a paid department in the center in Blue Hills. So, we're grateful for your

continued efforts towards excellence. Thank you so much. All right, let me take my glasses off. Any comments or questions online? I don't see the yellow hand on the white wall. Okay. Any questions or comments in the room? Yes, sir. Okay. Council Cooper. Thank you, Madam Chair. And uh Chief, just a just a quick question about um you know, I saw the outreach for at the correct school. Is there any planned outreach or messaging for town residents with the summer months coming up that you know you guys may put out or want to put out or even could say here in case someone Yeah, we we may officially put something out uh you know talk to the fire marshall's office and see what they recommend. But yeah, we we can or put something out just to kind of make residents aware of what to do and not to do, right? Thank you. Yeah, summer months are coming. I think that folks should, you know, probably get some reminders. Sure. Right. Good recommendation. And before we move on, Chiefest June, could you remind us again of the dates of the upcoming awesome 3rd annual Junth celebration that Blue Hills Fire is spearheading along with uh the town? Yeah, it's uh June 20, 21st, and 22nd, I believe, are the dates. It's the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with the parade being the uh the Saturday. Okay. And Friday and Sunday? Friday is uh going to kind of be like a fun night, cookout, that sort of thing where everyone music. Yay. And uh the Sunday will be vendors, food trucks, that sort of thing. Okay. same DJ as last year.

I'm not sure. We're We're working on the DJ. I'm teasing. He was great. He was great. He was my guy. And then I'll be there Sunday to spend some money. So, I just wanted you to refresh the public's memory on that upcoming weekend of events. And if there's no other comments or questions, okay, we will be moving on. Do we have a report from Mr. Blumfeld? Okay. Okay. So, we have a brief um Thank you. We have a brief report from Town of Bloomfield Emergency Medical Systems Committee EMS committee report for 514 2025. The EMS committee met on March 17th and reported that on that meeting at the April 9th, 2025 public health, safety, and environment meeting primarily about the committee's view on the plan to put the paramedic and backup ambulance contract out to bid. Um, they expressed their uh desire to kind of maintain what we had, but the town did indeed go ahead with the RFP process, which we're now in the selection process, having received a few bids, and I think it's going to turn out uh favorably for everyone. Um, as it was necessary to move the scheduled March meeting to March 21st, the EMS committee has nothing new to report since the last public health, safety, and environment subcommittee meeting. And that ends the report. And if I'm following my agenda, oh, Council Han, thank you. Uh, Madam Chair, I I just want to know who who did we receive bids from? I don't have that exact information. I just know that the bids came in and so as is the process when they come in there there's a drop dead date right that the last date to apply and then once they're received um the town of

Bloomfield has a committee that they convene to review the bids and then make the selection pursuant to that committee. So I believe that's where we are. They the the date the cuto off date has transpired. Uh was it the 9th or so? Mr. Town Manager could probably give us a date on that. But um the final application date has um happened and it should be to my understanding going to committee for selection for review discussion and selection. So if I'm not mistaken, Mr. Town Manager, is that correct regarding the RFP for the EMS services? You're you're correct, Madam Chair, and um the process is still very much still a working process. So, we we do want to be very careful in terms of how we're talking about it publicly, but um we do have um three um uh applications at this time and uh it'll be going through our internal process for for um further analysis and and ultimately selection. Who are those applications from? I I don't have that information right for me. Will you be able to send the information via email? Uh we can talk about that offline. And that's a good question. Um Council Mahan. Um we do have several initiatives, council initiatives. We have internal initiatives and bid processes. So, um, to know who they are, uh, is a good question. I think that I know it's public information, but yeah, please do contact the town manager. Um, just the fact that we got a few different options, I think is great. And I do know that whatever it is, we'll make the best selection for the residents because we're not confined by low bid here in Bloomfield. So, we're

going to go with the best bid that's the best fit for Bloomfield. So that I do know even if I don't know who all the biders are. So okay guys, you can convene on that later. I think we're going to move over to Amy Krauss, health director of the Bloomfield West Harford Health District. Good evening. Um and thank you. So uh follow-up infectious disease report. So as of May 8th, um there are a total of 1,01 confirmed measles cases. Um there have been 14 outbreaks reported in 2025 and an outbreak again people might not know this but the outbreak for the purpose of measles is considered three or more related cases. The definition of an outbreak does change depending on what infectious um disease we're working with. Um there have been three confirmed deaths from measles. I did list a t a couple tables like I did last time just showing again the age um and the vaccination status for you. Um on the next India if you can kind of drop down a little bit on the next um piece of it I did want to show too a map um for you as far as where um the total number of cases are. Um obviously you can see Texas right now being the the hot area. Um and then when you look at Connecticut, you can see all the surrounding states around Connecticut, but yet Connecticut is still at zero um as of today. So I'll continue to update uh the subcommittee as things change and progress. Um but we are continuing to watch this along with the Department of Public Health. Um we did run and now moving on. We did run um our fat attack program um at um 3:30 park as well as our medication safety presentation and brown bag event. We partnered with the

Yukon School of Pharmacy and their students um residents were able to bring in their brown bag of medication um and the pharmacy students went through that and and um evaluated the medication and the usage. Um, we did, as the chief mentioned, do a training event for opioid and aloxxone education for Bloom Hills Fire. We have some upcoming events. Um, as I've mentioned before, the annual cancer prevention fair, the health district is um, putting on and that's for July 31st. We are continuing to partner with Americanore um in and the community which is community health center for affordable health care and they will be at the Winbury Bloomfield Library um I think today's the 14th. Yes, they were there today. Um and also they are going to be at Kapakco Shopping Center on the 16th. Um today we were at the Whitenberry Library. It is prevention week and we did a table um and offered um harm reduction um um education materials and provided education information to the public. We were there today this afternoon and on Friday we will this Friday we will be at again the Capakco Plaza um by stop and shop passing out overdose kits from 1 to 3. And that's all I have for um for the month. Thank you. Thank you so much for that update. Do we have any questions or comments online? Any questions or comments online for the health district? Questions or comments from the room? Okay. Well, we want to thank you as well for the efforts of the health department. Summer's coming. um you know, heat safety as well as opioid um information. All of these things help to

educate our community and make it a better place to be and provide resources and information for people who may need it. So, we thank you for your continued efforts. But I do need to ask certainly I probably have some around my midsection so I can guess what fat attack is, but can you explain that? Sure. that was um again looking at sugar intake um healthy food options all the things that we're supposed to do that um I think we don't do till it's summertime and we realize that we need to start walking again. So this was a a program to adj to address you know what are fatty foods what are in foods and um um tying into also some exercising. No that's great. That's that's great. And that was at the senior center right? Correct. Okay. No, that's great. Um, I mean, I'm going to claim it. I have a AP card, so I'll claim it. Folks of a certain age may not necessarily eat as healthful as, say, a younger generation because that wasn't our paradigm. That's not, you know, how we ate back then. And my god, when McDonald's came along, us 50 and 60 year olds lost our minds, right? So that's a wonderful program to have um conducted not only about healthy foods but one thing you said that is really key is how it affects your blood sugar right some people know don't eat fatty foods don't eat a lot of junk food right you'll get fat but what about your A1C your blood sugar and some of the other uh things within your body that can go ary if you have uh an intake of an unhealthy diet so that's a great program thank you for sharing that. Okay. So, we do have uh a couple of other items. Are there any other public safety [Music] concerns? All right. Public comment. No one in the room. Is there anyone online for public

comment? Okay. Seeing none, I'm looking to get a motion to approve the minutes from April 9th. So move second. Okay. Well, I have a first and a first, Cooper and Oliver. And I have a second by Council Mahan. Thank you so much. All the we uh all in favor? I opposed. Abstensions. The eyes have it. Motion carries. And do we have a motion to adjourn? Some moved. Second. Okay, great. And we are convened at 6:40.