Public Health, Safety & Environment Subcommittee - Regular Meeting

Ednesday, July 9th at 6 PM, um the uh Bloomfield Public Health and Safety Environment Subcommittee meeting uh has come to order. Uh and good evening everyone. Do we have enough members for a quorum? It looks like it's me, you, Council Mahan, Tony. It looks like I see Tony Harrington and Todd and I know you're on the line. Okay, cool. Yep. Happy birthday, by the way. Thank you, sir. Happy birthday to your mom as well. Thank you. Okay. Uh thanks. Um yes, we we do have a quorum. Uh and so we're we're going to get started and the meeting is called to order. Um and we do have uh all uh counselors present except for our chair Cindy Lloyd. And so I'm councelor Todd Cooper and I will be uh in herstead tonight. Uh and so let's get started with um Chief Hammock uh police department updates. here. Um, sorry for the delay. I just couldn't see my screen there for a second. Um, can you all see the crime stats? Uh, we can, Chief, if you want to if you can make it make it bigger. Um, that is I'm having a little confusing. That's about as big as I can get it. So, crime remains down for the month of June

and down uh 25% for the year. Um sure why I can't having a little problem with my screen and I apologize. Um we have four four personnel vacancies at the police department. Um we are uh we have two officers or recruits who are currently in the police academy and officer Scaffarella and officer Richtor successfully completed their field training assignment and they are currently assigned to the patrol division and doing very well. Um for the month of June our traffic statistics we had 57 motor vehicle accidents. Uh 26 of those were on private property. uh we had uh 270 motor vehicle stops. So those numbers continue to be good. Uh you can see that they're uh higher than they were in May and considerably higher than they were a year ago. Um motor vehicle details um continue to be pretty consistent. Uh 123 this month. Um those numbers uh remained consistent over the past year. Uh motor vehicle complaints, we had 27. Um and we had three uh driving while driving while intoxicated arrests during the month of June. Um we continue uh with emphasis uh following the town manager's direction on Maple Avenue and Burr Road for uh speeding and uh commercial vehicles um tractor trailers etc. Uh patrol has conducted 23 motor vehicle details during the month of June. uh 18 motor vehicle stops were made. Um I know that previously the discussion um circulated around the public works activities out there um with roadway modifications. So we're going to see how that impacts uh uh the area over the next few months and summer. Uh we're optimistic for that. Uh

so uh we'll be reporting on that as summer progresses. Um Wittenberry Avenue, we've gotten some speeding complaints. We did 10 motor vehicle details. officers conducted 12 motor vehicle stops and then School Street uh both for stop sign violations and for tractor trailer violations. That's one of the uh six roadways in town that's restricted from uh tractor trailer uh usage. Um unfortunately we did not observe any violations but officers are going to cons uh continue doing motor vehicle activity in that area to see if we can see um what the complaintant has been seeing. We had one citizen complaint uh but when the supervisor spoke with the citizen and explained uh the officer's actions, the citizen withdrew the complaint against the officer. Uh we had one use of force during the month of June. Uh officers responded to a disturbance uh where it was reported that one of the parties was armed with a firearm. Uh when they arrived on scene, officers encountered the subject uh in the rear yard of the residence. One of the officers pointed his firearm at the subject uh gave him verbal commands. Uh that person was taken into custody without incident. Uh but as I've reported to you in the past, whenever an officer uh draws their firearm, um we report it as a use of force uh to both the state and to our accreditation agency. Um and uh we investigated it. Everything is in compliance with our policy and with state statute. Um so we feel very comfortable with that use of force there. Uh Bloomfield Volunteer Ambulance, uh as you know, Zach Clonberg has taken over for Ellen White. uh he's hit the ground running. It's doing an outstanding job. Uh the ALS uh advanced life support contract uh for our paramedics was awarded to AMR. Um we anticipate final signatures this month. Uh that'll continue a long-standing

relationship that we've had with them. Uh that goes back many years. Uh certainly my entire tenure in Bloomfield. Um and that's been an outstanding relationship. So we're very uh happy that uh that contract is continuing. uh CPR training classes uh for parks and wreck uh 29 people was done during June. Uh EMR classes for two officers, those are the officers that I just talked about, Scaffarella and Richtor who completed their field training. They had to go through emergency medical response training. Uh and they're both doing very well. We've added uh uh intraasal nlloxxylone blood blood glucose monitoring and epien auto injectors as a interventions for uh for the volunteers. Um and we're doing uh a feasibility study for paramedic rapid sequence intubation. I can't tell you what it is. Uh but I know Zach is very uh optimistic about uh and and excited about this uh level of care that we're offering to the community. Um he is also reviewing all of our general orders up at BVA to update everything uh to make sure we're uh in compliance with uh with the modern statutes uh and modern standards of care. Um and we met with the health health district this month and ta and obtained new overdose leave behind kits. Uh the department of public health is continuing to monitor an increase in overdoses in the general uh greater Harford area. Um and we continue to get the most modern uh uh medicines that we can uh to contribute and to uh to aid the public. And that is the conclusion of my report. I am uh available to answer questions. Uh thank you chief uh very much. Um are

there any questions from our subcommittee members? Any questions? Hearing none. Uh I do chief I do have just um the I think you said maple and burr. There were 24 um stops and 18 um when you when when you say 24 stops, right? And out of that there were 18 actions. I mean it's those those aren't tickets or anything. Correct. Hold on. I I apologize. I lost my screen again. Sure. Um let me just look quick. Um Maple Avenue, 23 motor vehicle details, 18 motor vehicle stops. So, uh it just means that uh the officers were out there on 23 separate details and during the time that they were out there, they stopped 18 motor vehicles for violations. What the result of that is, uh I did not report on those numbers, but I can certainly report back. Um, in many cases it depends on the level of the offense. Uh, we give, as we've talked about previously, we give the officers a lot of discretion um that they can issue a ticket um or uh they can give a verbal warning or a written warning uh to the motorist. Um, it's really at the officer's discretion uh during the stop. Um, usually, uh, what the directive from my office is is that if you're stopping the same people, um, and they've gotten, uh, a a warning or you've been out in the same area and you've been given warnings, it's time to escalate it, uh, to to motor vehicle

infractions, uh, so that people take it more serious and know that we're more and know that we're trying to impact uh, the area more diligently. Awesome. Thank you so much. Um, Council Oliver. Thank you, Council Cooper. How you doing, Chief Hammock? I'm doing well, sir. All right. I appreciate your uh report. I just have a a follow-up question. I'm not sure if you can answer this or not. The individual that was apprehended for uh supposedly having a firearm. Did they actually have a firearm when you got there? Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much. And good job, by the way. Thank you very much. Awesome. Uh, thank you, Chief. Um, next, um, we're going to have our fire department updates. Uh, Center Fire District, Chief Bernard. Good evening, everyone. Thank you, sir. So, for the month of June, we had 31 calls for service. We responded to four motor vehicle accidents, two carbon monoxide alarms, one water call, um one un unauthorized burn, and four electrical wiring/equipment problems. Uh the Bloomfield Center Fire Department was called to Penwood Park on June 1st for an injured hiker. Our members assisted the Bloomfield Volunteer Ambulance and the Encon with transporting the party by Stokes Basket and our utility one to the ambulance at the Gunmill Road entrance. On June 12th, we responded to the Blue Hills Fire District on a dual response for a reported structure fire located at 145 Brookline Avenue. Our crews assisted with fire suppression and overhaul and the fire was brought under control through the coordinated efforts of both fire districts and with the help of the Windsor Volunteer Fire Department. On June 12th, we responded to 20 Downing Circle for a cat stuck in the attic area above the garage. Um, our members worked diligently at gaining access to the cat,

including cutting a hole in the sheetrock, and unfortunately with no success. The homeowners seemed pretty confident that the cat would come down on their own. Uh, on June 26th, we received a mutual aid call to assist the Blue Hills Fire Department at 40 East Newberry Road with a chemical fire in the building. Um, on June 28th, our squad 3, which is out of our new firehouse at 360 Tungstus Avenue, responded mutual aid to 41 Glenwood Lane to assist the Windsor Volunteer Fire Department at a house fire that they had. Uh, as far as projects right now, um, we're in the process of replacing windows and rotten trim work at our Company 2 firehouse at 41 Dunkcasta Road. We are also having outdoor trim work and painting done at company 1 at 18 Wbury Avenue. As far as community involvement, um, as previously mentioned, we held our company 3 open house on Saturday, June 7th, which went very well. Our auxiliary recently donated a wheelchair to the Bloomfield High School. Uh, on Tuesday, June 4th, a few of our members assisted with distributing f food share to the seniors at 3:30 Park Avenue. Um, also the fire department scholarship committee uh received several applications and after careful review, they chose Anna Gray for her outstanding community service and dedication to pursuing higher education and will attend Trinity College to study public policy and criminal justice, aiming for a career as a police officer and a detective. Her impactful work as a volunteer coach with the Central Connecticut Jaguars youth track team, helping young athletes build skills and confidence exemplifies her commitment to the community. We were honored to present the scholarship to Anna, celebrating her achievements and bright future.

Um, we will be having a charity softball game on Saturday, July 9th against the Windsor Volunteer Fire Department. As far as training, at this point, we currently have 37 active members on our roster and four junior auxiliary members. Uh, as far as our training, on June 3rd, we had our our department and company meeting, which was followed by a uh our SOP and SOG reviews. On June 10th, we had our annual district meeting for the budget, which was followed by uh lifting and stabilization drill, which is um for motor vehicle accidents, etc. On June 17th, we did a a classroom. Uh it was a river rescue awareness, which is just um something we're getting involved with now because we had a uh river rescue up in the gorge with Simsbury in East Gra. Um on June 21st, there was a 4-hour river awareness practical which was held up at the Farmington River. And on June 24th, uh it's typically the last Tuesday of the month, we held we hold our monthly maintenance night, which is where our members go through the firehouses and fire trucks. That concludes the report for the Bloomfield Center fire. Thank you so much, Chief. Uh are there any questions from our uh committee members or any questions? No. Um, I just have two comments, not questions. Uh, myself, uh, just want to thank you, um, for the information on the scholarship, uh, that you, uh, the fire district was able to, uh, send out. That's great news. Always is. Uh, number one, absolutely. And number two, um I'll be honest with you, I don't know about anybody else, but the cat in a tree in

the fire department always brings me back to my childhood. So that's one of those feel-good stories, right? Absolutely. I much appreciate it. Thank you. Appreciate it, sir, Chief. All right. Um and so we're going to have uh Blue Hills Fire District, uh Chief Jones. Good evening, everyone. And uh the Bills Fire Department for the month of June responded to 41 calls for service including uh as Chieard said uh an involved structure fire at 145 Brookline Avenue which uh Bloomfield's fire department was assisted by uh Bloomfield Center fire and a dual response and the Windsor fire department. uh East Graanby and Simsbury Fire Department provided uh townwide coverage uh in case another incident occurred. We also responded to two motor vehicle fires and one which was uh fully involved in Route 218 uh just over the town line in Windsor and we responded to a rollover accident that required extation at uh Blue Hills in Cottage Grove. As Chief Barn mentioned, uh, Blue Hills Fire Department also responded along with Bloomfield Fire Department Mutual aid, a hazmat incident at 40 East Newberry Road that uh, burned several 55gallon drums of a chemical and it required a large uh, response from DWEP and a cleanup contractor. Most of the other calls occurred uh were activated fire alarms, unintentional CO detector activations, motor vehicle accidents with fluids, incidents involving power lines or cable wires. Uh we have 10 volunteer firefighters that will be taking fire one class this

fall. We also have two firefighters that passed the Q2 class that the Southfield Fire hosted and then they'll be trained uh they're now trained on driving fire apparatus. That's the first step training for the month of June uh June 2nd. We had the company operations. That's where each officer assist volunteers clean the firehouse. We're always making sure firehouses are clean, checking equipment, that sort of thing. June 9th, we trained on hose deployment at the uh training tower on Tungstus Avenue. This training trains firefighters how to uh deploy holes for a more efficient uh way of operating and deploying holes. it um you know it also helps to get the hose to a fire sooner. Uh June 16th we did a critique of the uh structure fire on Brooklyn Avenue and we trained using the decon shower. This decon shower uh is what we do in case of a hazmat incident. It it cleans the people that are going into the hazardous environment, their clothing and clothing equipment and um that sort of thing. On June 23rd, we trained on airbags and air tools. This training teaches firefighters how to set up and use the airbags during the extrication and rescue operation. the community outreach for the month of

June, June 20, 21st, and 22nd. We did the uh Junth block party Friday, followed by the Junth parade on Saturday, and Sunday was the food truck and fair festival and concert. Each of these events was uh successfully attended. We would also like to take thank the town of Bloomfield along with the individual departments along with center fire to help in uh supporting the incident the the event. On June 24th, Blue Hills Fire uh had a visit from the Girl Scout team, a total of 15 kids with a group leaders uh deputy chief denied a fire safety presentation that lasted two hours and of course they had given us some boxes of Girl Scout cookies. June 28th, Boils Fire participated in the uh Bloomfield United Methodist Strawberry Festival. fire apparatus was on hand and we gave out many fire hats and other uh safety materials for the uh patrons to read. And that concludes my report. Thank you, Chief. Appreciate it. Uh any questions from our subcommittee members or Oh, uh none. So, do we have Paula Jones? Uh, please. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to ask a question. Just that um fire on East Newberry Road, I think I read in the paper that the probable cause of that was the extreme heat. Is that the case? Yeah, that's the information that I was uh receiving about that incident. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Yep.

Thank you, Paul. Um, just a quick question. the you'd say you have 10 uh folks who have the firefighter one training. Is that the full complement of of people who now have that training or do you you have more in the pipeline to have it or or need it? Well, there's other people that are on the department that already have that training and they exceed that level of training. These are just new folks that are have just come in that uh need to get that training so they can uh you know enter the the hot zone or the fire zone. Gotcha. Awesome. Thank you so much. Yeah, that was uh that was definitely just a question. I wanted to make sure that you know see if you guys were your guys were getting the their training. Awesome. Thank you. Uh no other questions. Um again, thank you, Chief. Um we're going to move on to uh Mr. Blumenfeld, our EMS report. Thank you. Um the EMS committee did not meet in June. It's not a regularly scheduled meeting, but we do have some people who are working on some ideas to present to offset potential decrease in volunteer incentives. you know, the possible taxing of incentives if they go over $600 a year. Um, we'll hopefully have something after our next meeting to recommend as a way to keep our more active volunteers from um ending up with an effective decrease for some of their hours, which would not be a good incentive. the committees. That's really about it from

Okay. Um, are there any questions? No. Good. Thank you, Mr. Milfeld. We're going to move on um to our uh conservation, energy, and environment uh updates. Paula, good evening. Thank you. and and good evening. Um in terms of June highlights, the um kind of the major thing that we spent our time talking about was sustainable CT. Uh there C sustainable CT fellows are actually interns, summer interns and we were contacted by Amelia Kernney uh who kind of offered her assistance on either you know various projects uh that were related to sustainability or potentially getting reertified. Um Amelia came to our CC meeting to kind of talk about um you know what would be involved and then John Coleman, Linda Lauriano and I met with her via Zoom last week to get some additional questions answered and to develop a preliminary plan to getting reertified. Um it's actually a more um kind of I think complicated process perhaps than it was when we got reertified several years ago in terms of the requirements. Um but uh John Linda and I think we have a good shot. So we're going to take a going to take a stab at it. Um we've we developed a work plan and um she is going to assist us with uploading documents in the application process. It's a very aggressive goal since the application deadline is August 15th, but we're going to try and um even if we should fall short and we will try not to um the application window is open twice a year.

So that gives us a running start for the next, you know, the next time. So um that's going to be kind of our summer activity and we'll be talking more about that at our meeting tomorrow. Um we also talked at that meeting about two resolutions that we had uh actually voted on earlier in the year but given the timing um with budget and everything else going on um we hadn't really requested the council to consider it. So we did uh follow up in June and ask that the governance policy and economic development subcommittee um consider those resolutions. The first resolution uh concerns banning artificial turf installations. The second resolution uh concerns um applying to get Bloomfield included in what's called the Highlands region. And the council the subcommittee um moved that ahead to the full council to take action on. It's really kind of a mom and apple pie. There's no downside to doing that. And uh I've got on the second page of my report here a little bit of background um for the counselors to you know um get additional information if they like but it should be coming to a council meeting. Um in terms of artificial turf uh we really appreciated the discussion Monday night. Um it was a great discussion I thought and um the subcommittee um concluded that it would be really appropriate for the town manager and school superintendent to have some follow-up discussions. Um and so that is that was just kind of left. Um but again it was great to have the conversation and um we appreciate that. So that concludes my report with the exception that there are a couple of upcoming events. the big one

um for the summer um which got pushed back a little bit um due to some personal circumstances for the CC members who are planning this um on August 6 now with Boomfield Public Library we are doing a webinar on the dangers of extreme heat um what to know about it and how to stay safe um I did want to acknowledge um Mr. Blumenfeld um because I did not report out last May. I was not or this past month I wasn't present but um he did provide some contact information. Um CC thought it would be um a better webinar if we could get some input and involvement from EMS and we are doing that. So, um the upside to um delaying that presentation by a month is to have uh I think a more robust presentation and of course we'll be checking all the content with the U West Harpin and Bloomfield Public Health District. So, that concludes my report. Um unless people have questions. Uh thank you Paula. Um looking to see if there are any questions. I don't see any hands raised. Um I I heard you Paula I do I heard you ask a question of uh Chief Jones about the the heat related incident. Is that were you going somewhere with that? Is that uh I just found it um actually I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. Um, you know, the webinar we're doing is focusing on practical measures that residents can take to protect themselves, like if they don't have air conditioning. Um, really just to increase awareness about the impacts of heat in terms of long-term health because people aren't aware of

that. It's like the number one killer, you know, certainly in the summertime are heat related deaths. But quite frankly, um, we'll talk about this at our meeting tomorrow. I, you know, I'm not thinking about chemical drums, drums of chemicals exploding because it gets so hot. And that's apparently what happened. That was that was not something I ever thought about or contemplated. So, I think we need to be thinking about those things as a town. Right. Right. Okay. So, I I And as I understand, I guess the focus is more on personal protection rather than environmental. Um. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, for this for this particular webinar. Yes. Okay. You know, with that, I'd like to remind folks maybe just a couple things to ensure that you check on your neighbors, uh, who may or may not have the ability to to cool off in their homes and and also remind folks that, uh, our senior centers are open during the day where in libraries where people can cool off, read a book or, you know, take part in some activities and and may and still be safe uh, during the day in the heat. um certainly don't want um anyone to be in jeopardy uh during these times. So uh thank you everyone for for making uh bringing that to to the awareness of our uh our community. Okay. Uh so next we're are going to have uh Amy Cross uh West Hartford Bloomfield Health updates. Good evening. Um even so I normally just give our uh infectious disease update. So as of July 1st um the total number of confirmed measles cases has gone up. It's now 1,267 confirmed cases. There are now a total

of 27 outbreaks reported in 2025 so far. However, on a good note um for for it being good, the number of deaths has not gone up. um which is a good thing when dealing with an outbreak. One of the questions that we've been seeing lately out in the community um with people traveling on vacation is can I get measles while traveling? And so I wanted to just let the general public know. Um so you know measles measles can be found around the world. Um measles can live in the air for two hours after uh someone who's been infectious leaves that open space area. So, what we've always been recommending is following the CDC guidance that talks about uh before international travel, you know, evaluate whether or not your family needs to get a vaccine dose. Um, and then continue to monitor yourself after you return uh for about 3 weeks. And again, if people have any questions, they can feel free to reach out to the health district. As I've mentioned in the past, the health district does carry the adult um MMR vaccine as well as MMR for children. Um and then again listed below are the is the breakdown um to get you to that 1267 number. Um and then again just the map of the United States just showing the number of cases. Um so what we've been doing in the community um for this past month, we've been providing health education material. Now, every Tuesday at the Bloomfield Community Center, this coincides with the food pantry day um as well as the district's wellness screenings. We're at the um the uh community center every Tuesday. Um so we will be tableabling there as well with our health educator. Um we've continued to provide education harm reduction material. Um we did that at the Junth celebration on June 22nd. On the 25th of June, we provided health education material at the library story time.

We've been doing a lot of partnership with our library in town. Um, and so again, we're going to continue to do that monthly. We're offering the strength and balance session still and that was held at the senior center on June 27th. And uh, we're going to be continuing to hold that also on July 25th. and we'll be trying out a new program geared towards more core strengthening and posture starting at the end of August uh early September. And that is held by a licensed physical um therapist that the district has again partnered with. We've partnered with Bloomfield uh PD and BVA as the chief had mentioned um with uh Zach distributing overdose kits and and we're continue to have conversations about providing educational sessions um with with and two for the officers. Um we are offering a lock zone training for the community. Um those are being held at the district office actually tomorrow night, July 10th at 5:30 p.m. Um we did hold one in June and had about 12 individuals um attend that session. Um so next month I'll be able to give you an update as far as how many participants came for July 10th. We are promoting and running the third annual cancer prevention fair. Um that's being held on July 31st um from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at 3:30 Park A. And we've um worked with IET on the Bloomfield walking club partnership. And so we're going to be partnering again and supporting Bloomfield's walking program. And so we'll be doing that on Monday mornings. um and that this is an activity that will begin about mid July that the health district will take over running. If anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Okay. Uh any questions from doesn't look like from our panelists but uh our subcommittee members rather I'm sorry.

Um Mr. K, I do have a question. the um what's the capacity for the nlloxxone training and is there a registration uh that folks have or should have um done um for the one that's being held in our office? No, you can just show up for that. Um if there are places within the community businesses that would like us to provide that, we do offer that and have offered that in the past. Um we do also, as I've mentioned early on in previous um um sessions, we've also offered flu clinics um to small businesses. So if people are looking to um have a clinic um on site, we we've run those for businesses as well. So this particular one, yes, it's being held in our office, but no, you do not need to sign up and register. You can just show up. Awesome. Thank you so much uh for that. Uh really appreciate you and uh we're we're going to move right on. So um everyone um we're going to go to any there other public safety concerns which uh there's none here in the room and so I'm going to again I'm going to move on. There's uh any public comments online anything you No. Awesome. So, um, what we we now only have councelor Oliver, it looks so what we're we're going to be unable to approve the minutes uh without a quum, right? Who? Yeah. Okay. Council Oliver, what? Council Han's not on. I thought we had a quorum. Where is he? Oh, okay. Um, we do now, right? Um, I did

not see you for some reason. Uh, your your uh name didn't show up. Yeah, I'm I'm here, Todd. All right. Excellent. Thank you so much, Council Oliver. Uh, and Council Mahan, I'm sorry. Thank you so much. Just one second. Okay. Uh so um to the subcommittee members, we're going to defer on the approval of the previous meeting minutes uh until the next uh uh subcommittee uh meeting. All right. Um they will be available then. And truly with that, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. So move second. Thank you so much everyone for coming out tonight. This meeting is adjourned. Uh it is 6:39.