Maria Horn

School, in its new and varied formats and schedules, began in earnest this week.  Before the schedule kicked into gear, I had many anxious conversations with teachers, parents, administrators, and staff, about the unknowns they were facing as they made decisions about how to move forward. That anxiety is still present, but it’s been joined this week by a thread of positive energy: students glad to see their friends and not as bothered about wearing masks as we thought; teachers bursting with pride over their colleagues’ dedication and creativity; administrators heartened to see that the long hours of work they’d put in were paying off.  Those hours of preparation have enabled our schools to be nimble, and to respond to changing circumstances while keeping students, teachers, and staff safe. 
 
That doesn’t mean that we’ve discovered one solution that will work for everyone: there is simply no good answer to the dilemma about how, when, where and with whom to attend classes.  There are also no wrong answers. Teachers who enter the classroom are not foolhardy. Teachers who do not feel comfortable going back to class are not letting us down. Parents who send their kids to school are not being selfish. Parents who keep their children home are not over-reacting. Our superintendents, while working with Herculean efforts, are not superhuman – they can’t predict the future. Like us, they are trying to see around the bend while at the same time, attending to the crisis immediately in front of them.
 
One of the positive changes our schools are addressing is significantly increased enrollment throughout much of the district, with some elementary schools’ enrollment up by more than 15%.  Many people throughout the country are choosing to leave urban areas and re-locate to rural ones like ours.  If you are one of those families with newly enrolled children: welcome!  I’d love to hear from you.
 
I want to thank most sincerely every administrator, teacher, paraprofessional, social worker, bus driver, cafeteria worker, janitorial staff member, parent and student as they struggle to teach and to maintain order; to serve and to comfort; to learn and to keep their heads high. And thank you for sharing your stories with me – please keep them coming!
 
An addendum to the last newsletter, focusing on nursing homes.  So many of you reached out with lovely comments and remembrances about my mother when I posted a photo of us on Facebook.  Thank you for those kind and warm words.  Among them were posts from some of the wonderful staff at two local nursing homes who cared for her, and whose skill, love, and kindness I will never forget.  You enriched both her life and mine.  We are so fortunate to have the excellent quality long-term care facilities in our region that we do: they are among the positive examples that the state will be looking at as we ensure that we protect these residents in the future. 
 
And, finally, today is the nineteenth anniversary of September 11, 2001.  My son was an infant when the attack on our country took place, my two daughters were still new to school, and I had recently left the US Attorney’s Office which would handle the prosecutions of some of the attackers.  My memories of the event are tied up both in being the mother of three children under 5, and in my own oath to defend the constitution of my country.  Though our individual experiences of the event differ, it’s personal for all of us, and changed all of our lives.  This morning I started my day at St. Joseph Church in North Canaan (at the intersection of Routes 44 and 7 South) , for their traditional marking of the attack on the two towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the crash of the plane in a field in Pennsylvania.  That event continues throughout today, with the reading of the names of those lost during the terrorist attacks on our nation.

 

An upcoming event:

• Friday, September 18 at 6:00pm: join me for a a “Kent Conversation” on FB Live with First Selectwoman Jean Speck.

Here’s a list of today’s topics:

• Connecticut approved for additional weeks of lost wages assistance; Claimant certification begins within a week
• CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) launches new initiative on waste management
• Access to courts for victims of domestic violence
• FEMA extends approval of non-congregate sheltering program through October 1
• Additional SNAP benefits coming September 17 to nearly 109,600 households in Connecticut
• Connecticut ranked in top five best states to work
• Road projects in Cornwall and Torrington
• Northwest CT Chamber of Commerce WOW! Forum on October 2
• Podcasts from the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station

For several additional graphs and tables containing more data, including a list of cases in every municipality, visit ct.gov/coronavirus, and click the link that is labeled, “COVID-19 Data Tracker.”
 
Weekly update on the impact of COVID-19 on nursing homes and assisted living facilities
 
The following documents contain the weekly data regarding each of the nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Connecticut that have reported positive cases of COVID-19 among their residents. The data is presented as it was reported to the state by each of the facilities. If a facility is not listed, that means it is reporting that it does not have any residents who have tested positive.
 

**Download: Report from September 10, 2020 on COVID-19 in Connecticut nursing homes **Download: Report from September 10, 2020 on COVID-19 in Connecticut assisted living facilities

 

Connecticut approved for additional weeks of lost wages assistance; Claimant certification begins within a week

 
Beginning next week, 250,000 unemployed workers in the state will be eligible to receive another $300 per week as part of the federal disaster aid program. 
 
Existing Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) claimants have already self-certified and do not need to do anything to receive the additional benefit. 
 
New unemployment claimants and existing state and extended benefits claimants who are required to self-certify will be notified by letter or email that they are eligible and may self-certify when the program is open. 

Payments will be disbursed in mid-September when the self-certification testing is complete and widely available to all.
 
To self-certify:
 

• Claimants log into their unemployment account, where the account main page offers a new option in the menu “Certify for Lost Wages Assistance.”
• Once a claimant has clicked on the button, a new screen will ask them to certify that their unemployment or underemployment is due to COVID-19.
• The claimant then confirms their submission and has completed the process.

 
Federal eligibility guidelines include:
 

• Recipients of at least $100 per week, including the dependency allowance, of any of the following benefits for the week they are seeking unemployment benefits;
• Claimants receiving unemployment compensation, including state and federal workers and former service members, as well as those receiving Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, Extended Benefits, or High Extended Benefits;
• Claimants who are part of the Shared Work Program; and
• Workers with a Trade Readjustment Allowance.

 
A total of five weeks of Lost Wages Assistance will be paid in addition to regular unemployment weekly benefits and will be retroactive to the claim week beginning July 26, 2020. 
 
CT Department of Labor will continue to release updates as they become available on the CTDOL Federal Supplements webpage and send them directly to anyone who signs up for “Info to your Inbox” on the agency’s homepage.
 
 
 

CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) launches new initiative on waste management

 
When people ask me what issues I had been hoping to work on in the 2020 legislative session that wasn’t, waste management is near the top of that list.  It’s not always what people want to talk about, but it’s in crisis right now, as Hartford's aging Municipal Innovation and Recycling Authority (MIRA) plant will need to be replaced in some capacity within the next couple of years.  To protect the fiscal health of our towns, and the environmental health of our communities, we will need to work harder to prevent waste from the start so it isn't incinerated, landfilled, or shipped out of state.
 
I was very glad to see news that Connecticut was taking this problem seriously, evidenced by the fact that, just this week, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection launched a new initiative to tackle our waste problem that encourages municipalities to pursue waste reduction strategies such as recycling, composting, pay-as-you-throw, Extended Producer Responsibility and more.

The Connecticut Coalition for Sustainable Materials Management will explore ways to reduce the amount of waste that towns create and throw away. 65 towns (including Kent, Salisbury, Sharon, and Torrington) have already signed onto the initiative.
 

Access to courts for victims of domestic violence

 
The pandemic has been particularly hard for those at risk of domestic violence.  Stay-at-home orders, intensified by economic stress, appear to have increased levels of abuse and emphasized the need for victims to have access to resources, while safety measures taken by the Judicial Branch to limit public and staff exposure to COVID-19 had the unintended consequence of limiting access to family violence restraining orders. Even when courts were open, some victims were hesitant to use them for fear of contracting the virus. 
 
In response, the Judicial Branch, Connecticut Legal Services, Inc. and the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence (CCADV) worked to bring the restraining order application process entirely online. This went into effect as part of Executive Order No. 7T, signed by the Governor on April 2^nd.  
 
This week, Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence (CCADV) shared its latest policy brief, Online Restraining Orders: Ensuring Safe Access to Court-Ordered Protections During a Pandemic. The brief assesses the processes established during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure victim access to restraining orders amid court closures and limited hours of operation. I join them in urging the legislature to make the process permanent when we next convene.
 

FEMA extends approval of non-congregate sheltering program through October 1

 
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has approved a 30-day extension of the non-congregate sheltering authorization under the FEMA Public Assistance program through October 1, 2020. This program, which was initially approved in March, provides non-congregate housing to certain high-risk individuals, including those who have COVID-19 or have been in contact with individuals who have the virus. It provides the state and its municipalities with a 75 percent reimbursement of all eligible costs associated with this housing. The program covers non-congregate housing for:

• Those at high risk of exposure in public service;
• Individuals in at-risk facilities, such as group homes, nursing homes, long-term care sites, and alternative care facilities;
• First responders and health care workers who have been exposed and cannot return home;
• Homeless individuals in congregate shelters; and
• Individuals in domestic violence shelters.

 
Connecticut’s implementation of this program has been highlighted as a best practice by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition.
 

Additional SNAP benefits coming September 17 to nearly 109,600 households in Connecticut

 
The Connecticut Department of Social Services will provide over $16.5 million in Emergency Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) Benefits to nearly half of Connecticut’s SNAP participants on Thursday, September 17, 2020 – adding to the $100.6 million in emergency benefits disbursed in April, May, June, July, and August.
 
For additional information about SNAP, visit www.ct.gov/SNAP.
 

Connecticut ranked in top five best states to work

Which states were the best states in which to work during the initial months of COVID-19, as restrictions closed in on workplaces, schools and communities across the country?  It turns out that Connecticut ranked 5th best in the nation, according to a new analysis by Oxfam, “The Tattered Safety Net.”
Connecticut trailed only Washington state, New Jersey, California and Massachusetts, and was just ahead of New York, D.C., Rhode island, Vermont and Oregon in the analysis, which ranked the states in three policy realms:  worker protections (45 percent of a state’s overall score), health care (20 percent), and unemployment support (35 percent).
 

Road projects in Cornwall and Torrington

• On Route 128 from Route 7 to Route 4 in the town of Cornwall, a milling and resurfacing project will take place on a 4-mile segment of road: the milling is scheduled to take place on Monday, September 28, 2020 and be completed on Tuesday, September 29, 2020. The resurfacing of this project is scheduled to occur on Thursday, October 1, 2020 and be completed Monday, October 12, 2020.
• On Route 202 in Litchfield and Torrington, a milling and paving project will take place on a 5-mile section of road, from the recently constructed bridge on Route 202 in Litchfield over the Bantam River, to Walnut Street in Torrington. The schedule includes replacing damaged catch basins tops for approximately two weeks starting September 8th, followed with milling of the existing pavement surface and pavement repairs starting around September 21 and continuing for approximately two weeks. Final paving will begin around October 5th for approximately two weeks followed with pavement markings. The project is scheduled to be completed by October 31st. Various lane closures will be implemented between 7:00 am and 4:00 pm starting on Tuesday, September 8th, 2020. Night work and Weekend work may occur as needed to keep on schedule.

 
Both schedules are weather dependent.
 

Northwest CT Chamber of Commerce WOW! Forum on October 2

 
The WOW! Forum, a program of the Northwest CT Chamber of Commerce, was created in 2005 in response to the need for professional development and personal growth opportunities for women. The event works to advance women's leadership across careers and cultures to share knowledge and ideas, to enrich each other's lives, to provide a network of support and to promote opportunities for women in leadership. 
 
This year’s event, on October 2, will be conducted virtually for the first time.  You can register here: https://www.wowforum.org/register.asp
 
 

Podcasts from the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station

 
If you’re interested in following some cutting-edge research done by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES), they have a new podcast series which you might check out.  The first podcast focuses on research related to COVID-19, including involvement in testing wastewater for virus presence throughout the state and in the development of Saliva Direct testing protocol. These are both collaborative efforts with Yale University. You can find them:  
https://portal.ct.gov/CAES/Publications/Publications/Podcasts-and-Videos   Or
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB-jQhJzseA&t=2s
 
Governor Lamont encourages residents to sign up for the state’s CTAlert notification system
 
Governor Lamont is encouraging Connecticut residents to sign up for CTAlert, the state’s emergency alert system, which provides text message notifications to users. To subscribe, text the keyword COVIDCT to 888-777.
 
Providing information to Connecticut residents
 
For the most up-to-date information from the State of Connecticut on COVID-19, including an FAQ and other guidance and resources, residents are encouraged to visit ct.gov/coronavirus.

Individuals who have general questions that are not answered on the website can also call 2-1-1 for assistance. The hotline is available 24 hours a day and has multilingual assistance. Relay services can be accessed by calling 7-1-1. Anyone who is out-of-state or using Relay can connect to Connecticut 2-1-1 toll free by dialing 1-800-203-1234. The hotline is intended to be used by individuals who are not experiencing symptoms but may have general questions related to COVID-19. Anyone who is experiencing symptoms is strongly urged to contact their medical provider.