Christine Palm

President Biden's bold American Rescue Plan will send much-needed aid to towns throughout the country. I am grateful to U.S. Congressman Joe Courtney for providing the town-by-town breakdown in his Congressional District. These figures represent the minimum our towns are expected to get; they may each get between $150,000 and $200,000 in additional funds as part of the overall $32M slated for Middlesex County.

Chester: $781,432

Deep River: $824,671

Essex: 1,233,218

Haddam: $1,519,257

The fallout from the Covid-19 public health crisis will be felt by all of us for years to come. But President Biden's immediate actions will go a long way in helping stem not only the public health emergency, which has taken 370,000 American lives -- including 7,381 here in Connecticut --  but the economic and social crises as well.

Hallmarks of the plan are: 

• Mount a national vaccination program, contain COVID-19, and safely reopen schools, including by setting up community vaccination sites nationwide, scaling up testing and tracing, eliminating supply shortage problems, investing in high-quality treatments, providing paid sick leave to contain spread of the virus, addressing health disparities, and making the necessary investments to meet the president’s goal of safely reopening a majority of K-8 schools in the first 100 days.
• Deliver immediate relief to working families bearing the brunt of this crisis by sending $1,400 per-person checks to households across America, providing direct housing and nutrition assistance, expanding access to safe and reliable childcare and affordable healthcare, increasing the minimum wage, extending unemployment insurance, and giving families with kids and childless workers an emergency boost this year.
• Support communities that are struggling in the wake of COVID-19 by providing support for the hardest-hit small businesses, especially small businesses owned by entrepreneurs of color, and protecting the jobs of the first responders, transit workers, and other essential workers we depend on.

Now that the vaccine supply has started to increase, the dark winter of the pandemic is slowly giving way to a tentative, but inevitable spring.

I am so grateful to all the volunteers in our four towns who are calling folks and offering help with vaccine information. Again, if you need help booking a vaccine appointment, please call your Town Hall. Those numbers are:

Chester: 860-526-0013 Ext. 202 

 



Deep River: 860-526-6020          

Essex: 860-767-4340                  

Haddam: 860-345-8531              



Please: check on your neighbor, keep wearing a mask, get a vaccine as soon as you qualify, treat essential workers -- including retail clerks -- with respect, thank a teacher, thank a teacher again, and please reach out if you need help.