The Board of Selectmen last month voted unanimously to employ an established and well-regarded municipal worker as New Canaan’s director of health.
New Canaan Director of Health Jennifer Eielson.
Jennifer Eielson, whose past positions in the New Canaan Health Department include chief sanitarian and director of environmental health, moved into the new position following the selectmen’s 3-0 vote at its Sept. meeting.
According to Cheryl Pickering-Jones, the town’s human resources director, municipal officials in April had met with the state and found that New Canaan is eligible to have a full-time health department because Eielson has a master’s degree.
“We are meeting all of the credentials fo the state and they recommended that we take that step,” Pickering-Jones said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. “It makes us more eligible for grants and it also keeps us away from possibly being put into a district.”
Though no funds for the promotion had been approved in the current fiscal year’s operating budget, there’s money in the chief building official’s budget to cover it, she said.
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted to approve Eielson for the new role.