Public Health, Safety & Environment Subcommittee - Regular Meeting

Health Safety Environment Subcommittee. It is Wednesday, August 12th, 2026. And the time is 6.01 PM Eastern. I'm calling this meeting to order. And I will now take a roll call. Councilor Oliver. Present. Councilor DeBethen-Brown.

Here.

Councilor Mahan. don't see presently uh hopefully he will join us later um and with that we will now have our roll call um captain clownberg is is here um in stead of uh chief hammock and uh deputy chief steve high dash i'm clownberg all right good evening chair cooper

members of the committee, town councilors, and residents of Bloomfield who are joining us tonight. Good evening. My name is Captain Zachary Klonberg, and I will be presenting the Bloomfield Police Department's public safety briefing for the committee tonight on behalf of Chief Hammock. Moving into the July 2026 crime stats, those are the numbers that we have. Two points that I'll address on the next slide, actually three. are the assault, larcenies, and then the auto thefts are the significant ones to note. So if you can go to the next slide, I'll provide some information and context. So that assault was a isolated road rage incident that escalated to a physical confrontation and arrest was made on site for it. So again, isolated incident, nothing broader to be concerned about in terms of public safety. The larceny numbers we've seen increase month over month, year over year as well. Just to say, larceny is a broad criminal offense category that includes pretty much any theft of property, but also includes internet-based scams, fraud, check washing, white collar crimes, shoplifting, all those things come into play. And this is what we see that's consistent with our regional statewide and national trends. Certainly when it comes to internet-based scams and online fraud, Nationwide, we've seen an increase in those. So the way that the police department approaches that is with a multifaceted response, and that includes partnerships with our patrol division, follow-up investigations with our detective unit, and collaboration with regional, state, federal partners as well, and also includes prevention through community services with education and awareness. So I think fraud prevention and uh how to be you know financially aware so you don't fall victim to a scam or an online larceny like that so auto theft is a point that i wanted to bring up because it's a success story for the police department we've seen month over month and year over year reduction in auto theft and you know it's not too long ago during and then coming out of the pandemic that we saw widespread auto theft not just in town but throughout the region as well uh that really plagued many communities and so our reduction that we've seen that's sustained over time is really a combination of again work joint work between our patrol division uh detective unit and working partnerships with surrounding communities and also that community education awareness so locking vehicles not keeping cars in vehicles things of that that nature so i just wanted to highlight that as a success for the police department across the board And next slide. For personnel, you can see our recruits in progress right now that are in different phases of their training. Recruit LaBeach currently in phase three of field training and performing very well. The rest of the recruits are in the academy, and we look forward to them graduating and starting their field training. We wanted to take a moment on the slide to provide some recognition and some thanks to Officer Janine Allen, who retired after 10 years of service with the department. She came to us as a certified officer, having retired as a sergeant from another agency. and served not only as a field training officer, but as the department's court liaison and evidence officer. She did an outstanding job and on behalf of Chief Hammock and the department as a whole, I'd like to extend my thanks and appreciation to Officer Allen for her hard work and commitment, not only to the department, but to the town and the citizens of Bloomfield. CRR traffic statistics for the month there number of motor vehicle accidents 46 actually down from last month motor vehicle stops for enforcement are up from last month at 148 number of details that were conducted and refer to motor vehicle details I mean officers taking a traffic post or a position to do directed enforcement I can see where our speed shield deployments are for data gathering and planning of our speed enforcement details. And next slide. Our response to the citizen traffic complaints that we've received. Overall, 46 enforcement details were conducted, 33 stops. Of those areas of concern that were brought to our attention by citizens, there were two reported MVAs. Those were both around the Maple and Burr area. So enforcement continues to combine both between assigned details from the police department side and also in response to citizen traffic complaints. Community services in July supported multiple events for the town that included the concerts on the green, block watch, the West Indian celebration, And last month I had the pleasure of introducing Officer Moyes and K-9 Luna to the committee and to the town as well. And they continue to receive requests for their presence at various functions and businesses in town. So guys, we've used them up at the ambulance building for... some work with our volunteers and the paramedics and even some walk-ins at the police department for residents specifically wishing to see can i luna and make an introduction it's here so they're doing a lot of great work and uh looking forward to seeing all their continued successes FOR BLOOMFIELD VOLUNTEER AMBULANCE I KNOW THERE'S SOME CROSSOVER HERE BETWEEN HEALTH DISTRICTS AND THEN THE EMS COMMITTEE AS WELL SO I CAN GET INTO SOME ADDITIONAL DETAIL FOR THE EMS BRIEF IF NEEDED BUT OVERALL WE HAVE COMPLETED OUR STOP THE BLEED KIT INSTALLATIONS AT ALL THE TOWN BUILDINGS Was fortunate to be able to partner with our health district on some opioid harm reduction stations that are now stationed outside the police department and the leisure services building over at 330 Park. Also in July, our medical director, Dr. Patini, who oversees all our, not only our EMS providers, but the officers at the police department as well, who hold a EMR certification, all those professionals work underneath his license as a physician. And he now has, a quick response vehicle that's fully outfitted, and he's available to respond to calls in Bloomfield as needed to provide physician-level support for acute injuries, critical incidents, or mass casualty incidents as well. Really appreciative of Dr. Pitini's support and for this proactive and very forward-thinking project. There's very few medical directors around the country that will take the time not only to work hand-in-hand with their pre-hospital providers working in the field, but to make themselves available with their skills and equipment to provide direct assistance to the citizens of the town should the need arise. Not only does he bring that skill set, but scene management and incident command management as well, and assistance to our on-scene incident commanders operating at a critical incident. And he brings the full power of the St. Francis Level 1 Trauma Center and their medical support to coordinate hospital resources and get the hospital ready to receive patients as needed. So again, I'd like to thank All those at St. Francis and Trinity Health and Dr. Pitini for their continued cooperation and support for our EMS system. And last but not least, our new ambulance 291 has been delivered and we are now just in the process of stocking it and doing the last little bits of setup before it gets inspected and certified by the state. And now open it up for any questions or discussion um i'd just like to thank the committee again on behalf of chief hammock for your continued support and cooperation with the police department thank you hey captain clonberg uh any questions uh for my counselors no count no questions thank you thank you for your report um do you see a hand councilman

Thank you very much chair Cooper, first of all, thank you very much for providing those wonderful Luna patches. I should on Facebook and folks are very excited about it and folks wanted me to ask if there were any other available and, and if so. um you know what what would be the cost associated um and if not then maybe this could be like a little fundraiser for the police department but uh please let me know are there any available for of our residents to uh take part in the luna patches

Oh, absolutely. Officer Moyes has quite a supply of the patches and stickers as well. So that's included at any time anyone wants to stop by to see Officer Moyes and K-9 Luna, or if they're at an event, those materials will be with them to distribute to the community. Perfect.

Thank you very much. That's good to hear.

Thank you, Councilman. Any other questions? No? Thank you, Captain Kladberg. That is awesome. Thank you for that report. And it looks like also our hires are moving right along. which is also a good sign for the town of Bloomfield. And we also want to thank Officer Jean for her service to the town of Bloomfield, right? We always should recognize those folks who give of their time and effort here. Though she's paid, she still gives her time and effort to keep us safe. So thank you. Next, we're going to move on to Fire Department updates with Center Fire District Chief Bernard.

good evening everyone good evening so for the uh month of july we had 57 total calls for service uh we had one car fire one water call we had six electrical malfunctions two lockouts one open burn 29 false alarms three carbon monoxides uh five hazmats six motor vehicle accidents On the 4th, we responded to the town of Windsor Mutual Aid for a fully involved motor home fire. On the 12th, we responded to the town of Enfield with Task Force 52 due to their July 4th celebration, multiple accidents, and a significant structure fire. On the 19th, we responded to one Philly Street at Deloro Elementary School for a child stuck in a swing who had been removed by the police department before the fire department's arrival. And on the 14th, we responded with the Bloomfield Police Department and Bloomfield Ambulance to Bloomfield Ave and Cottage Grove Road for a series two vehicle accident where one party required extrication. As far as maintenance goes, our HVAC upgrade at our Company One Firehouse at 18 Wenton Bay Avenue is still currently being worked on, along with other scheduled maintenance at our three firehouses. On the first, we had maintenance completed on our SCBA, which is our self-contained breathing apparatus known as our air packs. As far as community outreach, we had members attend the Tungstasos parade on the 11th. And on the 23rd, we held a thank you for your service event for four of our members who recently moved out of town and have now left the department, unfortunately. As far as training, on the 7th, we trained on fire hydrants and ladders. On the 14th, we held an aerial truck tactics class in the classroom. And then on the 18th, we held a hands-on aerial truck tactics training where our members actually took the ladder truck to members' houses and trained for actual scenarios. On the 21st, we had our monthly maintenance night. The 25th and 26th, we had two members attend a Q fire truck driving class, which both members passed. On the 28th, we trained on various water flow operations. On the 31st, we held driver training for a couple of our members. And our current member roster right now is at 37 firefighters and 7 cadets. That concludes my report for Centerfire.

Thank you, Chief. Any questions online? Chief Bernard, just real quick, for your compliment, is that a full compliment is the question or not? As far as what, the members? Yes.

Yeah, I mean, I would say for a volunteer department, yeah, that's a pretty good number to have. absolutely you had some new members who were certified that came in too am i correct uh yes we're uh we we're up to seven cadets now we only had about three um and then even with losing four members we still um we've had a couple other people that have joined so we're kind of staying right at an even pace okay okay awesome thank you thank you yes sir uh councilman

Thank you, Chair Cooper. Chief, I'm happy to hear that when you're keeping on pace, folks just across the town are always pretty concerned about whether our fire departments have enough folks there to serve the community. But there's always, always uh individuals in our community that are that are ready to uh to answer the call um of service for for our town so and i'm happy to hear that that's still continuing even with you know people leaving our community so one thank you very much for uh your service to the community and for those uh brave volunteers um i'm also happy to hear about the consistent training that you're doing you know that that's crucial so i i'm glad to hear that one we have a well-trained

uh department and a well-staffed department so thank you very much for your leadership you're very welcome thank you yes our our training division is doing a phenomenal job with keeping on top of the uh you know the the newest training techniques awesome thank you so much um next we're going to move on uh to blue hills fire district um chief willie jones

Good evening, everyone. For the month of July, the Blue Hills Fire Department responded to 44 calls for service. And at the end of the month, month of July, the year-to-date total was 290 calls. Throughout that period, there were no major incidents. We did, as Chief Bernard had mentioned, we did have a fully involved RV fire that was contained to that unit on Old Paquannock Road. The fire was extinguished by firefighters from Blue Hills and Blue Hills Center Fire with Windsor providing station coverage in case another incident occurred while we were there. At this incident, one firefighter was transported to St. Francis Hospital with a minor injury. And most of the other calls involved wires down, false fire alarm activations, motor vehicle accidents, and other incidents involving natural gas. There were also two mutual aid dual responses involving Bloomfield Center Fire. For our Monday night trainings, On July 7th, we did a drill pumping with destination targets. On July 13th, we went over personal protection equipment. July 20th, we went up to Pepperidge Farms and we did a classroom drill involving the ammonia system up at that facility. And on July 27th, We did a review and an open session with new and veteran firefighters within the department. Our new membership for the department continues to grow with several new candidates going through our process that we require. For community outreach, the Blue Hills Fire Department participated in the National Night Out at the Bloomfield Pool area. It was a very successful event. The turnout was great. We had a fire engine on location and we handed out several fire safety brochures, hats to the kids and served up some popcorn to all that attended. As part of our 100-year anniversary celebration, both Blue Hills and Center Fire Departments were working on combined anniversary celebration, the celebration of the parade and the banquet. The banquet will be held Saturday, October 3rd, 2026. Lineup is at 10 a.m. with a parade starting at noon, traveling from Savin Road through the center and ending up at the Center Firehouse. Everyone is invited to attend the event. Uh, man, that pretty much concludes my report. If there's any questions I can answer, I'll be glad to do so. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Chief Jones. Um, also the beacon brow.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't really have a question, but I really wanted to wait until the police and both fire departments went before I, I said, thank you for, they are doing a tremendous job. for our town of Bloomfield. I hear the fire trucks sometimes at night, and I know that we are safe. I really wanted to talk about the National Night Out. It was a wonderful event. The Sunday truck that you guys had, I won't tell you that I went inside and had a Sunday, but it was really good. The petting zoo was really good. The residents really had a good time. I think every year it just gets better and better. And I wanted to thank the police department and the fire department and the health district because they were also there. So thank you for everything that you do for our town. You run in when others run away. So we thank you for that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Welcome, ma'am. Councilor Mahan?

Thank you, Chair Cooper. I also wanted to thank the Blue Hills Fire Department and Chief Willie Jones for his community partnership and, you know, continuous community partnership. We were, Councilman Ethan Brown and I were able to host a community discussion at the Blue Hills Fire Department. And I just want to let all residents know, of course, our fire departments are open. As long as you communicate, they are open for these community events. And our departments are always happy to partner with members of the community. So I want to thank you for always being willing to partner and support our community in so many different ways.

thank you thank you thank you councilman um just a really quick question um chief jones i i did hear you um briefly speak about uh membership and things um is how's your compliment um for blue hills fire department yeah we we're over 40 uh maybe 43 44 that includes uh career staff and you know we're continuously getting people that are interested

varying levels of interest and we're just trying to make that whole thing work. But we've definitely got some people interested.

Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much. And I will reiterate that what Councilor DeVita Brown said about the keeping the town and residents of Bloomfield safe. And that is a great effort between all of our public safety offices. I just, for the clerk of council who is stepping in for us, Ms. India Rogers, thank you so much. If we can make sure that the 100th year a celebration for October 3rd, you know, as much as we can, you know, broadcast that out to yes yes i think that's important i think and i uh bloomfield if you're listening hopefully you're able to come out on saturday october 3rd uh for the blue hills and center fire district um 100 year celebration i think that we should come out and show our appreciation uh for them absolutely again thank you chief thank you yes sir next up we will have our ems report blue blumenfeld if he's online

he had uh sent an email saying he was not going to be able to attend tonight um if you but i'd i'd like to make up just a couple notes but that's okay all right uh so uh For the, on behalf of Lou and the EMS committee, a couple notes for the volunteer ambulance. Overall, July was a busy month for the ambulance and for the ambulance volunteers. Did 188 calls, and we saw an unusual, unusually high spike in especially acute cases, and that included seven cardiac arrest cases that came in and two trauma alerts from serious accidents that were handled by our EMS crews also participated in the national night out had an ambulance staff there as well with outreach materials and I would just like to take an opportunity to thank our EMS personnel as well. And we are a combination paid and volunteer department, but a special thank you to those volunteer EMTs that still commit their time to serve the town of Bloomfield and provide medical care for its residents. The volunteer ambulance is very active, both in providing not just 911 coverage to the town, but medical coverage for town events like the food truck festival that we have in town and even private events so we have a Cygnus having a employee event coming up that the volunteer ambulance is providing volunteer ambulance medical coverage for And then community events as well, whether it's schools, the senior expo coming up, our friends over at our farm that are having their fall festival, the volunteer personnel are all there at these events, not only to recruit new volunteers, but to share the work that they're doing for the town and provide community outreach and education for health and safety. So to all the men and women at Bloomfield Voluntary Ambulance, whether you're paid, volunteered,

extend my sincere thanks and gratitude and appreciation for the work that you continue to do in service to your community and cap clownberg are there any questions um online no thank you um we'll move on next to um conservation energy and environment committee uh chair paula jones of that committee

Good evening. Thank you. And apologies for being a little late to join and apologies for this very lengthy, lengthy report. I wanted to provide more detail for the counselors to have, you know, after the fact and can follow up with questions if they have them. But I thought what I would do is focus more on what? urgent or urgent is maybe too strong a word but but things that have kind of arisen lately and uh then again as i said i'm happy to provide any follow-up information um in terms of our july highlights the committee's work uh we had a very good overview by brenda watson um who's on the cec currently and she also is the executive director of north hartford partnership Her presentation concerned the Climate Resilience Hub project, which is at the Swift Factory in Hartford. It's a regional project, including Hartford, Bridgeport, and New Haven. But the North Hartford partnership is serving as the project's fiscal agent and is the lead site for this three-city initiative. the resilience site is all about kind of community and climate resilience uh they're you know they will have three core functions emergency preparedness food and water distribution energy concierge services what they're trying to do is really amplify and leverage existing services including the councils of government and They're kind of early in the process after getting some grant funding so that they can do the planning in terms of how they want to effectively go about this. We have requested a, oops, hopefully I'm still here. We have requested a tour sometime this fall. And if the council, counselors are interested, I can certainly ask about having a time and a session where counselors would be, could attend as well. But it sounded like a great project and something that Bloomfield might be able to pick up some things about. So that was that. The Extreme Heat Initiative is something that we are continually working on. We have a working group. And the current members of that working group are Nancy Bowden, Claudia Guardiak, and Jessica White. The focus is effective public outreach and education. and I've got kind of a bulleted list of the things that they're working on. The thing I really want to stress here is this group really appreciates the input and the partnership with the health district and with EMS. They presented a webinar last year And we're really happy with how that went and the value of the information. So. The health district is apparently in the process of updating. It's what district heat and air quality plan. They will be producing some resources that can be shared with the public. um and so we are awaiting that as we want to rely on our experts um but help in distribution in distributing good information um nancy bowden has approached uh bloomfield uh public libraries about doing some kind of winter series um to get ahead of you know next year which is supposedly going to be hotter than this year and uh obviously she wants to utilize you know have um EMS and the health district involved if they want to be. But the thought would be to read some book, do some other things potentially with the library. So I should have more of the report on that next month. And story of plastic. That's an initiative. by resident brad huskinson who appeared in front of the subcommittee last month um so i just wanted to give an update on that joint program with the public library uh there's a panel discussion following this film and the panelist um the second panelist in addition to mr huskinson is dr catherine owens she goes by kat She is a professor and chair of the Department of Politics, Economics, and International Studies at the University of Hartford. She is a National Geographic explorer, a Fulbright MIRU fellow, and is just really impressive. And she's local. So she's very excited about participating on the panel. And I did send along a flyer, which can be shared. It's an in-person event only, so for counselors who are interested in attending, you need to register because the library is pretty much a stickler for. We've got 60 seats, so the panelists have to register. So if you're interested, there should be a QR code here, and please sign up. Those are the highlights for the month. I have added, after the data center concerns came up a couple of months ago, I've added a new section to the report. I'm just calling it resident concerns. It's generally not in any particular order. but i wanted to make the council aware of what things have been percolating up that the cc has been contacted about um some of these are ongoing but the the two i wanted to highlight you know and speak to are the first two that i've listed uh spotted spotted lanternfly um cc talked about that a couple of years ago and had kind of an educational article in the messenger The population has really expanded. I literally have spent the last two days sort of going and looking at places in northwestern Hartford where they were cited. I'm talking to Richard Cowles, who is based at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station and has a lot of expertise on this. And the long and the short of it is they've really expanded. Apparently, they've expanded as rapidly as they have because they lay their eggs on vertical surfaces, including vehicles. So in the last six years, they started out in Fairfield originally, and apparently they hitched rides along the I-95 and I-91 corridor, and they're pretty much spread throughout the state. they're problematic for their preferred host which is tree of heaven which you know that in itself is not a problem it's an invasive plant but they're also a threat to like agricultural crops uh fruit trees if you have your fruit trees if you have a maple tree you may be um you know you may be a little bit at risk particularly if the tree of heaven is nearby This is the I think this is the primary cause. They're really showing up in this one little section of northwestern Bloomfield on Hoskins Road. There is a lot of tree of heaven there and they attract the insect. And then, you know, they don't feed only on tree of heaven. They feed on other things that we like. And so they're a real pest and they produce they produce they produce honeydew which is a polite way of saying excrement they excrete excess sugars and liquid and it really makes a mess particularly if they're in your yard so um more to come but i wanted the council to be aware of it in case people you know start asking about it as uh you know this just really kind of popped up literally yesterday so uh That's it. The only other thing I'll mention specifically is sgar second generation anticoagulant rodenticides this is something people have expressed worry about in the past because it's rat poison basically and the problem with it is it doesn't just kill rodents there's a lot of collateral damage to our wildlife and to birds If anything eats a rodent that has ingested this, it ultimately impacts that animal that feeds on the rodents. so um i've scheduled a or i'm scheduled to meet via zoom with a couple representatives of connecticut votes for animals because they're very concerned about this um they're hoping that hounds will start taking some action potentially i don't know what that looks like yet um but i wanted to let the council know um that cc has been approached obviously we will talk to them and as i get more information um i will share it

so that concludes my formal report and I'm happy to answer any questions thank you Ms. Jones Paula do we have any questions from our counselors no I do have one just just really quick I know you talked about the The cooling centers not cooling you did not talk about the cooling so that was part of my question, it was about the extreme heat initiative have you. Is is is anyone involved from you know with town of bloomfield facilities as far as some you know 330 park or you know I know the library, yes.

Yes, we are. Actually, the working subgroup has been talking to senior services and is hoping to do like a lunch and learn or some kind of program. And the idea would be to include the health district. They are very happy to participate and offer to help out with that. So thank you for the question. Yeah, the idea is... push out as much information as we can. And certainly, since next year is supposed to be even hotter than this year, which is kind of hard to imagine, try to get ahead a bit. a little bit more in terms of education and uh do the winter series you know with as many partners and town you know town uh departments as want to be involved right and maybe this is a stretch but maybe even also some of our businesses right um acs are a good idea folks are unable to get out and maybe

you know, some sort of way that something like that could be done for those who are, you know, more homebound and don't have the, you know, the ability to get out and also maybe not have funding or whatever to cool their homes off, right? Because that is coming. It is a thing.

Extremely.

Right. So, yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. We are now going to move on to Amy Krause and the health director of the West Hartford Bloomfield Public Health.

Good evening. Captain Klonberg started to talk a little bit about our efforts. And so I'm switched up, usually I present on all the activities that we've done. But this one is specific to us and near and dear to our hearts. So I wanted to share this with you, like Captain Clonberg had also shared, this effort between Bloomfield PD and Amplify in the Health District. And these are our harm reduction cabinets that were recently installed at these two new locations. We're currently working on a third location, so more to come on that. But these cabinets kind of look like the old-fashioned newspaper boxes that you might see. These cabinets are outdoors and they provide free 24-7 access to overdose prevention and health resources. And these efforts reflect again about reflect our shared commitment to improving Community health and reducing the overdose risk. So obviously here in the picture, you can see some of our health district staff PD and Members from amplify. So what are in these cabinets and what if you haven't had a chance to look, please feel free to stop by one of those locations, but inside of it is naloxone. There are also drug test strips and these are some of the drugs listed that you could you could test for. There are overdose kits as well as gloves and CPR face shields and Joanne Jones- ointment wipes there's also hygiene kits that we've put together and also a mini sharps container these. Joanne Jones- These cabinets were provided by amplify and had received funding and had reached out to local towns, to see if there was any interest in putting them into the Community, we will continue to stock those supplies moving forward. Because those are new, we're continuing to monitor them at least once a week for right now just to see what is being used and taken from those so we can replenish that and just kind of see based upon maybe the season or the weather outside. So we will be stocking those supplies moving forward. And really, again, this is a low barrier access to health resources. We're trying to reduce barriers such as transportation costs, stigma and limited service hours. We do have these supplies also at the health district, which is the 580 Cottage Grove Road address. here in Bloomfield, so people can come into our office and also receive those without any questions being asked. But again, this is free, anonymous, no appointment needed, and that's what's great about these units being available to people in the community. And again, these are part of our harm reduction strategies which complement treatment, recovery, prevention, and public safety efforts. These cabinets help ensure residents that have access to these resources Some of these resources are also being brought to our health tabling that we have been doing throughout the community as well. But again, no questions asked. People can also come to the office to get those as well. So thank you. And again, thank you to Bloomfield PD and to Amplify for making this happen for us. So thank you.

Thank you, Director Kaus. I see a hand, Councilor Beathenbrough.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The West Hartford Bloomfield Health District will always be near and dear to my heart. So thank you, Director Krause, to you and your team. These old newspaper boxes with all these supplies is going to be a great resource to our residents. Unfortunately, I do see residents in the town of Bloomfield that are unhoused. And some way, somehow, we need to get this information out far and wide, especially of the personal hygiene items that are in those boxes. It's extremely needful. So I don't know how we can get this information. I don't know if we should put it in the newspaper, put it in a, you know, whatever the council sends out with information. on the sign boards, wherever it is that we can get this information out, I think we should. This is an extreme support to our community and it's well needed. So Director Krause, thank you for your partnership, for your leadership in regards to making this happen for the residents of the town of Bloomfield. I also know that there's going to be a senior resource fair. Is it this week? Next week?

I'm not 100% sure, but.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. Excellent. Thank you once again for all the work that you do.

Thank you. Thank you. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but Councilor Beetham-Brown, September 15th was led to let you know.

Thank you. I just wanted us to elevate that so that our residents know about it as well. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am. Is that something that you guys can put out? Yes, it is. Awesome. Awesome. That is going to be done and has been done and will be followed up again. Thank you so much. And certainly thank you for the fact of having those tools out there, right? for my thought is it's sad that we have to have them out there, not only at Bloomfield, but anywhere, anywhere. And I hope that those who need to take, who need to make use of them will do so, whether it be for the hygiene and or even the naloxone. If it's to keep a friend safe, but certainly use it. And maybe in the future you can let us know what the usages might be. And we can at least ascertain what that may look like for Bloomfield and where we would need to focus more of our efforts, if that's understandable.

Yes, it is.

Okay. Thank you again so much.

Thank you.

Um, next was going to be, um, the update on the maple, uh, traffic, but, um, uh, I'll blame it on myself. I did not, um, follow up. And so we're, we're going to leave that where it is, but certainly we do have the, had the report from, uh, Cap Comberg about, um, the details that have been going out there. Uh, I think the other, uh, piece to this was, um, what does a, where we are in the process of, um, of installing um certain equipment out there to uh ensure that you know speeders um are you know slowed down and hopefully that was uh that will be coming uh to us um shortly uh but again and also so thank you i just want to reiterate too for the other details that are going out and and taking care of our residents concerns about speedings and trucks and things of that nature um That's it for that piece. And then there was Paul Jones of the CEC said the update on the data centers in the town of Bloomfield. I was informed that the TPZ will be strengthening their language in our, to come to the council, strengthening their language so that data centers would be probably taken off of the table. um more than likely here in the town of bloomfield that is our aim uh to take them off of the table so that we uh if there is a permit or an application made that it would not uh move forward right so that seems to be would address i think what most of um folks in the town of bloomfield uh think about data centers and so um let's just know that we're taking action uh and uh not only here in this subcommittee but in those places where it is um uh done um being our tpz and then which will come before the council uh so that's the report for that uh in the unless there's any questions on that um but we can also follow up um uh the next is um uh public comments are there any Anyone online or no hands raised? Okay. Uh, every month, everyone must. Oh, I'm sorry. Councilor Beeson-Brown is going to say everyone must feel safe, but please.

That's okay, Mr. Chair. I do feel safe, but I wanted to, um, raise something kind of like elevated to, to this committee to see how we can provide assistance or what we need to do. So I know that there's a blight ordinance and I know that there are steps to this blight ordinance, right? There's supposed to be a finding process of this blight ordinance, just like the finding process for overnight parking on the street. I know that things need to be strengthened so that we can start collecting those fines and giving out those tickets. I just wanna make sure that we're putting it on this committee's agenda to make sure that that loop is closed. Having the ordinance, but not having the teeth behind it or the mechanism to collect the fines, I think is a pain point and we need to get that taken care of. So I just want to elevate that and hopefully we can add this to the agenda. I don't mean to add more work to Ms. Rogers, but I might be. I saw you laughing, so you're going to forgive me. But I think we need to close that loop. So if we can get that on this agenda sometime in the near future, at least we can say something that we have policies that we have put in place that protects our residents i i did get a phone call the other day about a refrigerator being left out on the side of the street the the uh the doors were still on it and and and the person was concerned if some kid is uh you know adventurous and and probably get locked in there then what happened so we just need to close that loop and and bring that home i just wanted to elevate that so mr chair maybe we can get this on a future agenda to solidify that process. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am. So just for what you said, I just want to ensure, right, so we would need to look at the ordinance and ensure in that ordinance that it is ratified. Right, number one. We do have the ordinance.

We do have the ordinance, but I believe that there needs to be a mechanism for us to be able to collect fines. And figure out where that's going to go and how that's going to happen. We don't have to recreate the wheel because other towns do the same thing. So I just wanted to elevate that. Thank you.

Sure. Absolutely. And I would just ask a quick favor. If you also have some information and certainly other counselors are welcome that we look at those collections and how they're done. Right? So we have an idea, a template of some sort that we can apply here in Bloomfield.

Absolutely. But I do believe that Ms. Rogers might probably have the same information that I'm going to.

Okay. Okay. We will bring it up and ensure that something happens with it. Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm with you a hundred percent.

I'm also going to ask for something else in this right here. Sometimes you have to ask for forgiveness than permission. I want to circle back on the CPR. I know that the cost of the CPR was mainly for books and things of that nature. But I'm asking if we can look for organizations that might be a little bit less for us to be able to offer CPR. maybe to high school students, um, maybe to, um, probably middle school, high school students. I remember, you know, back in the stone agents, stone ages when I was young and looking to do babysitting or things like that, that, uh, CPR certification was a thing. I don't know if it's a thing now, but being able to probably, um, sponsor some of our students, I think would be a good thing. So, sir, if we can just look at that, I know that we would have to definitely bring it to council because money is involved. But I think there's funds that the council has given to other organizations or projects. And I would like to elevate that as a public health concern. Even the meloxodone, being able to administer that and knowing when to do that, I think having that knowledge as young people, I think is important. So just wanting to look a little bit deeper into those things. Thank you, sir. Okay.

Kevin Klonberg is in his infinite wisdom is writing down what you are requesting, right? And he will take that and bring something back to us. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you, Councilor Beeth and Brown. We had Councilor Mahon, you have your hand up first.

Yes, sir. Thank you very much. Just back on the piece of around blight, I'm 100% in favor of us, of course, ensuring that we have the teeth to enforce any issues around blight. We've had that issue in many different instances in which we didn't implement the necessary, like I said, teeth to enforce blight. these policies. I do want to also make sure that as we're going through and enforcing that we're keeping in mind, of course, the human aspect of things. I know that there are certainly instances of which folks are willingly ignoring the laws that we have, but there are also some instances in which people simply cannot afford to do some of the maintenance that we're looking to require to avoid the instances of blight that we're looking to require. So I'm hoping that we can also implement some sort of mechanism to, you know, when there is someone that instead needs a helping hand, that we can provide that help or some sort of uh waiver for for the fee with um uh if someone you know complies within a certain amount of time if they are facing some sort of hardship um i just want to make sure we keep that aspect in mind as we're pursuing this thank you councilman um council oliver

uh thank you chair cooper um i agree with um both councilman uh to beat the brown and councilman uh mahan i but from my standpoint you know like councilman said it can cost money for somebody to have to a elderly person possibly or just anybody that wouldn't know how to unscrew the doors um i'm wondering if there's a possibility i know you know obviously we don't want to drive the cost of the town but is there a possibility instead of charging people a fine letting them pay a subsidized fee in town to and have DPW at least uh schedule a time to come and remove the doors for you know a a low fee but i mean i don't i don't want to start creating a cost here for for something but i just think it'd be better uh than to do that because not everybody's gonna be watching uh these meetings and that you know they're just gonna put them out there and then somebody dies it's not about finding somebody for having it some people just don't know it's about avoiding um young a young child from dying like counselor to beat them brown said so uh that's just my point of view and i i thought that's all thank you

Thank you, Council Oliver. And so, yes, it does seem to be an issue. Certainly, if it's been brought to a member of this subcommittee, then we, you know, do our due diligence to ensure that it's out there. We do have blight personnel on staff. And so, we can, you know, have them do a creased enforcement probably in those areas that may be, you know, an issue, right? Some of the most egregious ones first, but also need to, we need to familiarize folks that there is a blight ordinance and that, that can be, that can be publicized to the town of Bloomfield at large so that people know that that is a thing now and that it is coming and that there can be monetary, you know, monetary uh lack of better word uh punishment that comes with not cleaning up right um it's a quality of life issue uh and so nobody wants to live next to a yard full of you know old cars and junk or anything of that nature if it's nature um overgrown grass and all that sort of thing you know that can be taken care of but we're talking to some of the egregious things um where it's it's trash and um You know, I, for one, probably many others, most others would not want to live next to someone like that. And so we would kindly ask folks to keep their properties up to speed, right? so um beef um you know so we're going to do right now uh no public comments but um just want to do um approval of the minutes from july 8th if i have a motion a motion that we approve the minutes that we accept the minutes of july 8th second second thank you um all those in favor I think the chair votes aye and the motion passes. Before we adjourn very quickly, I want to recognize all the departments at 330 Park Avenue as well for their National Night Out. They're part in National Night Out. I know they do a lot of the planning that goes into that. And I know that a person sitting right here right now, Andy Rogers and certainly Camilla Hahn and the other folks, I don't want to start saying names because I don't want to forget anybody. But I know that they put in a lot of work to this to ensure also that that happens. And so I would be remiss if they were not mentioned. right thank you and thank everyone here um you know our public safety our ems you know our fire departments our public health and and our environmental committees thank everyone who does the work that they do for the town of bloomfield and again these are you know these are quality of life and these are the safety of the lives of the town of bloomfield that are represented here and they do a great job um you know and we are blessed to have them and so uh with that um i don't need to entertain a motion to adjourn this all i need to do is say that this meeting stands adjourned and have one