Vaccines and other updates for Corner

GOSHEN — At the Jan. 14 meeting of the Northwest Hills Council of Governments (held online), John Fields, the regional coordinator for the state Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, spoke about the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine. 

The Northwest Hills COG is an organization of the first selectmen of 21 area towns.

Field said that there had been some confusion in the initial round of vaccinations over who was eligible. He said part of the problem is that different health districts interpret the vaccinations guidelines differently.

Field also said that local health departments and hospitals have been told not to waste vaccines, with the result that people receive the vaccination earlier than they otherwise would.

“That’s the reality of it,” Field said.

Later in the meeting Field said he doesn’t see testing for COVID-19 ending “anytime soon.” 

He also mentioned that President Donald Trump signed off on federal relief relating to last summer’s Tropical Storm Isaias.

Field said that requests for personal protective equipment continue, and are becoming harder to fill. “Gloves and other items are getting hard to get.”

He also said the recent federal stimulus package includes funding for “farm-to-table” operations to get food to people in need.

The legislative session

Joe DeLong, the executive director of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM), briefed the COG members on the current session of the Connecticut General Assembly. 

He said his organization was watching for “well-meaning proposals” that will impose “unsustainable and uncontrollable costs” on municipalities, causing them to choose between raising property taxes, cutting services or some combination of the two.

DeLong said he expects action from the Legislature on codifying some of Gov. Ned Lamont’s executive orders from early in the pandemic, especially those that allow boards of selectmen to pass budgets without the usual town meeting.

He also said CCM is keeping an eye on zoning reform proposals.

He said a top priority is making sure state funding for towns is not cut, and criticized the Legislature for allowing such funding to “continue to be in significant jeopardy, year after year.”

Dan Jerram, first selectman of New Hartford, said the state has not adjusted town aid for the cost of living, adding additional financial burdens to towns.

Latest News

Bunny Williams's 
‘Life in the Garden’
Rizzoli

In 1979, interior decorator Bunny Williams and her husband, antiques dealer John Rosselli, had a fateful meeting with a poorly cared for — in Williams’s words, “unspoiled” — 18th-century white clapboard home.

“I am not sure if I believe in destiny, but I do know that after years of looking for a house, my palms began to perspire when I turned onto a tree-lined driveway in a small New England village,” Williams wrote in her 2005 book, “An Affair with a House.” The Federal manor high on a hill, along with several later additions that included a converted carriage shed and an 1840-built barn, were constructed on what had been the homestead property of Falls Village’s Brewster family, descendants of Mayflower passenger William Brewster, an English Separatist and Protestant leader in Plymouth Colony.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Creators: Sitting down with Garet Wierdsma

Garet&Co dancers

Jennifer Almquist

On Saturday, March 9, the people of Norfolk, Connecticut, enjoyed a dance performance by northern Connecticut-based Garet&Co, in Battell Chapel, titled INTERIOR, consisting of four pieces: “Forgive Her, Hera,” “Something We Share,” “bodieshatewomen,” and “I kinda wish the apocalypse would just happen already.”

At the sold-out show in the round, the dancers, whose strength, grace and athleticism filled the hall with startling passion, wove their movements within the intimate space to the rhythms of contemporary music. Wierdsma choreographed each piece and curated the music. The track she created for “Something We Share” eerily contained vintage soundtracks from life guidance recordings for the perfect woman of the ‘50s. The effect, with three dancers in satin slips posing before imaginary mirrors, was feminist in its message and left the viewer full of vicarious angst.

Keep ReadingShow less
Dealing with invasive species

Sam Schultz, terrestrial invasive species coordinator with PRISM, is holding a tool she calls a “best friend” in the battle against invasives: the hand grubber. She was one of the presenters at the Copake Grange for a talk about invasive species Saturday, March 2.

L. Tomaino

According to Sam Schultz, terrestrial invasive species coordinator with the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISM), one of the best ways to battle invasive species is with a hand tool called the hand grubber.

In her work in managing invasive species, she refers to it as a “best friend.” Schultz and Colleen Lutz, assistant biologist with the New York Natural Heritage Program, delivered a lecture on invasive species at the Copake Grange Saturday, March 2.

Keep ReadingShow less
Arts Day for young creatives

Fourth graders at Arts Day

Lynn Mellis Worthington

Fourth graders from all of the schools in Region One gathered Wednesday, March 6, at the independent Kent School to expand their artistic horizons.

It was the 28th year that Region One has held Fourth Grade Arts Day, and this year’s event was coordinated by Kent Center School music teacher David Poirier. He quickly pointed out, however, that it was a team effort involving all of the art and music teachers in the region. He also saluted Geoff Stewart of Kent School, chair of the performing arts department and director of the theater.

Keep ReadingShow less