Government

‘We’re Excited To Finally Leap into the ‘90s’: Town Switching to Digital Permitting Platform

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Addressing problems that Town Hall has had for years as New Canaan has fallen behind surrounding towns, officials said last week that the municipality is finally switching over to a system where residents and business owners can apply for, purchase and receive various permits online. New Canaan Health Director Jenn Eielson for about six months has served as co-project manager to phase in a new platform that’s expected to start a test phase Nov. 1, she said at Thursday’s regular meeting of the Health & Human Services Commission. “We’re excited about that,” Eielson said of the OpenGov Permitting & Licensing platform during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “That’s for all the various different health permits—restaurants, salons, wells, septic, pools,” she continued.

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Moynihan: Town Employee Holiday Party Canceled Due To Lack of Response, Not COVID-19

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Hours after a staffer in his own office notified municipal workers this week that their holiday party had been canceled due to rising COVID-19 cases, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan denied the report, saying instead that it was “due to lack of response from Town employees who wished to attend.”

“We do NOT have a concern about local increase in COVID cases, which continue to be very modest in size compared to our population and produce very mild illnesses for those who are vaccinated,” Moynihan said in an email sent Tuesday to department heads, the Board of Selectmen and his office staff. “We continue to urge all Town employees who are not vaccinated to get vaccinated unless there is a medical condition due to which an employee’s medical provider advises against vaccination,” he said in the email, obtained by NewCanaanite.com. The party had been planned for Dec. 16 at Waveny House. It was to include appetizers, dinner and dessert, as well as beer and wine, and a $10 “donation” from attendees was due Dec.

Around Town

Health Director: 1,000 Kids Aged 5 to 11 Registered for Nov. 11 COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic [CORRECTION] 

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More than 98% of 12- to 17-year-olds in New Canaan have been vaccinated against COVID-19 virus, according to the town’s health director. And 100% of town residents aged 18 to 44 also are vaccinated, Jenn Eielson told members of the Health & Human Services Commission during their regular meeting, held Thursday via videoconference. 

The 45- to 64-year-old age bracket stands at about 89%, while 100% of those aged 65-and-over are vaccinated, Eielson said during an update to the Commission. “The percentage of the total population with at least one dose—this includes those that re not currently eligible, is 80.12%,” she said. Eielson added that 72.9% of the total population is fully vaccinated. 

The town’s Health Department was scheduled to run a booster clinic Thursday of Moderna and Pfizer shots, she said, and 350 people registered for that. A booster clinic for teachers will be held Nov.

Alicia Meyer

Health Director: State Funding for New Canaan’s Public Health Nurse Now Uncertain

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New Canaan’s health director said Thursday that state officials “dropped a bombshell” this week regarding funding for a nurse whose responsibilities include administering vaccine. Hired in November through an Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity or “ELC” grant, the public health nurse has helped with COVID-19 virus testing, contact tracing and vaccinations amid the pandemic, and is to work on program expansions such as in telehealth, Health Director Jenn Eielson told members of the Health & Human Services Commission during a regular meeting. “Obviously, I cannot lose my public health nurse—there’s going to have to be a solution to that,” she said during the meeting, held via videoconference. 

“With the potential of another wave coming in the fall with the Delta variant—because even though we have very high vaccination rates, we still have the unvaccinated, the under-12 group that can’t get vaccinated yet,” Eielson added. “And there’s no timetable on that until ‘some time in the fall,’ is all we kept hearing for the under-12.”

The comments come as town officials decide how to spend $6 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding that’s been allocated to New Canaan. One specific category that the funds may be applied to is “public health expenditures” and bolstering local public health response, officials have said.

Dr. Harrison Pierce

COVID-19: New Canaan Health and Human Services Chair Urges Residents To Continue To Be Cautious

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Though thousands of New Canaanites are being tested and vaccinated at clinics that are filling to capacity and receiving high praise for their efficiency and effectiveness, health officials are urging residents to be cautious amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Even on the high side, some of the vaccines now being administered to town residents are perhaps 95% effective and “it’s still 5%” outside of that protection, according to Dr. Harrison Pierce, chair of the Health & Human Services Commission. “We have had three or four people locally who have been vaccinated and have gotten the disease, or at least tested positive,” Pierce said during the Commission’s regular meeting, held Thursday via videoconference. 

“And it’s happening in the community, too. So we have to take all the precautions that we were taking previously and reinstitute them if we are not continuing with them. The travel issue is big and you are going to have to, via the DPH [Connecticut Department of Public Health]/CDC, you are going to have to quarantine seven days coming back and then negative test before you re-enter society.”

The comments came following a general update from New Canaan Health Director Jenn Eielson.