“We’re heading into a critical two weeks.”

That was the latest word from First Selectman Dan Rosenthal as Newtown, along with the state and nation, moved into what Governor Ned Lamont predicted would be a “horrible April” at one of his recent daily press briefings.

With Newtown’s official count of positive COVID-19 cases approaching three dozen as The Newtown Bee went to press April 2, Rosenthal warned that there are likely many more among the local population of 27,000-plus residents who are infected with the coronavirus.

“Over the last few days, we’ve seen case numbers come up — not alarmingly fast, but you can’t just follow numbers,” the first selectman said “So we’ve got to remain constantly vigilant.”

From a broader perspective, Rosenthal praised Newtown resident and Nuvance Health CEO Dr John Murphy as he begins co-chairing Governor Lamont’s new Health System Response Team.

Dr Murphy was asked to serve beside Jeffrey Flaks, president and CEO of Hartford Healthcare, and Marna Borgstrom, CEO Yale New Haven Health. The trio, during a press briefing March 30, said they are pursuing a concept of aligning every Connecticut health care facility under a single unified mission.

“This degree of collaboration allows us to address issues together, where before we would address them in isolation,” he said, adding one of the primary missions is to manage the anticipated surge in virus cases by using health care facilities across Connecticut. “As much as there is untapped capacity, we want to identify it and take advantage of it,” Dr Murphy told reporters.

Rosenthal said the regional approach is the right approach.

“It gives me a lot of comfort seeing how he’s managing a very large medical network,” the first selectman said, leading him to call on Newtown residents to support the already beleaguered corps of medical and EMS professional on the front lines.

“I’m anticipating a greater patient load and its related impact on the availability of PPE gear,” Rosenthal said about Personal Protective Equipment. “So if people have gear around, we’ll create steps to help them donate.”

Right now the first selectman’s greatest complaint is “people are using gloves and tossing them on the ground, especially around our retail operations.”

“It’s really offensive,” he said. “No one is recommending people wear gloves. I’d much rather conserve them for those treating patients. You can’t get COVID-19 from touching something, unless you carry it to your nose or mouth. So let’s be courteous and be sure we’re washing our hands frequently.”

On another subject, Rosenthal said it appears Newtown is near a point of relief when it comes to the way the next town budget is ratified. A prior Executive Order permitted towns and cities that normally hold budget votes to forgo them in favor of budgets being approved by sanctioned municipal legislative bodies.

But Newtown’s latest Charter Revision created a requirement for voters to also authorize or reject bonding certain high-cost capital projects. But Gov Lamont’s April 1 Executive Order 7S provides apparent closure on that concern.

“If bond council concurs with my interpretation, Order 7S order will permit the Legislative Council to approve qualified capital authorizations that would otherwise need to be approved by voters at referendum,” Rosenthal said. The council is still in budget deliberation mode at the committee level, and the first selectman as well as Council Chairman Paul Lundquist anticipate completing discussions and ratification of the 2020-2021 budgets for the town and school system “in about a month.”

Zero Increase Budget

The first selectman said as of his latest conversation with the council, he is working on a plan to present a zero increase budget, reducing the current proposal that is on the table with a 0.6 percent increase.

Rosenthal said he is currently reformulating the spending plan with town Finance Director Robert Tait.

“There’s not a lot of merit in trying to push through even a six-tenths percent increase,” Rosenthal said. “Any budget is an impact, but taxation will be virtually the same, as long as it is approved down the line. We’re also still awaiting guidance on giving a grace period on tax collections, but we need to have tax bills out the beginning of June.”

The first selectman said a $700,000 reduction “takes us to a zero increase.”

“So I think we’re going to identify one-time capital expenses and apply part of our FEMA reimbursement to offsetting that $700,000,” he said of an imminent FEMA reimbursement for local expenses resulting from a May 2018 macroburst that devastated parts of Newtown and the region.

“By using some of that FEMA money, we haven’t compounded the problem by carrying a recurring capital liability into future budget years,” the first selectman said, adding that one-time capital spending would be on things like vehicles, computers, and other technology software and hardware.

Returning to the subject of keeping Newtown residents safe despite a lack of legally mandated shelter in place requirements, Rosenthal said, “Everything we do matters a lot locally.”

“We tried to keep parks open, then people were still going there. Then we had to put up sawhorses and tape,” he said. “The governor is looking at that from a much greater scale. You have to keep your sanity and go outside, so it’s been good to observe people in places like Fairfield Hills are appropriately distancing.

“I know we’re wired for interaction, but it’s good to see folks are keeping their distance,” he added.

He said a number of local food service businesses have been stepping up with meals for hungry local families, as well as medical and emergency workers. Locally, Human Services Director Natalie Jackson is continuing to database people who want to help.

“We’ll be activating those volunteers as needed,” the first selectman said. “I think we’ll start seeing that list being tapped sooner than later.”

In the past few days, Jackson’s office has published a General Resource Guide for residents, as well as a separate Wellness Guide.

Access the Resource Guide by CLICKING HERE

Access the Wellness Guide by CLICKING HERE

Latest Executive Orders

Gov Lamont’s Tuesday Executive Order No. 7R enacts the following provisions, mostly focusing on statewide education concerns:

Continuation of funding for boards of education: The order requires the Connecticut State Department of Education to continue processing appropriated state grant funds intended to support boards of education through the fiscal year ending June 30, 2020, including ECS grants, payments for special education, and Choice programming. It also requires municipalities to continue providing funding to local boards of education as set forth in the approved annual school budgets.

Continuation of payment of public school staff: The order requires school districts to continue to employ, or restore to employment if already laid off, and pay school staff who are directly employed by the local or regional boards of education.

Preservation of student transportation services and special education providers: The order requires local boards of education and municipalities to negotiate amendments to contracts related to student transportation and special education services with the goal of continuing to make payments to transportation and special education providers so they may compensate their active employees, sustain the continuity of service when school resumes, and require the contracted company to attest and provide reasonable documentation of the fact that it is charging only the actual and reasonable cost of sustaining wage and health insurance payments for active employees and fleet.

Lamont’s April 1 Executive Order No. 7S enacts the following provisions:

Safe stores mandatory statewide rules: Effective upon the opening of each retail establishment for the first time on April 3, 2020, every retail establishment in the state will be required to take additional protective measures to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19 between and among customers, employees, and other persons such as delivery drivers and maintenance people. The order requires the commissioner of the Economic and Community Development to issue mandatory statewide rules prescribing such additional protective measures. Such rules will be mandatory throughout the state and supersede and preempt any current or contemplated municipal order.

Immediately following Gov Lamont’s signing of this executive order, the Department of Economic and Community Development published the Safe Stores Rules on its website, outlining guidance for retail establishments. All stores must follow these rules beginning April 3.

60-day grace period for premium payments, policy cancellations, and non-renewals of insurance policies: Beginning on April 1, 2020 for a period of 60 days, no insurer in Connecticut — including life, health, auto property, casualty, and other types — may lapse or terminate a covered insurance policy because a policyholder does not pay a premium or interest during this time. This grace period is not automatic. To be eligible, affected policyholders must provide additional information acceptable to their insurance carriers.

Extension of 30-day period of credit for liquor permittees: Modifies state law to permit the maximum period of credit for liquor permittees from certain creditors, including wholesalers and manufacturers, to be 90 days after the date of delivery for all permittees prohibited from engaging in on-premise sales per Executive Order No. 7D.

Daily payment of certain taxes changed to weekly: Modifies the tax payment requirements for Sportech, the licensee authorized to operate off-track betting in Connecticut, from daily to weekly so that its employees are not required to appear in person daily.

Flexibility to amend Medicaid waivers and state plan: In order to allow continued access to critical services for Medicaid beneficiaries, the order waives public notice and legislative hearing requirements for the duration of the declared public health and civil preparedness emergencies to allow the Department of Social Services to seek expedited approval from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to submit Medicaid waivers; amend existing Medicaid waivers; submit Medicaid State Plan Amendments that would have required a waiver but for the Affordable Care Act; and obtain relief from various other federal requirements on an emergency basis.

Relief from certain municipal tax deadlines and collection efforts: Requires municipalities to enact one or both of two options for providing temporary tax forbearance of property tax collection and reduced interest on delinquent tax payments to property owners under certain conditions, including that landlords agree to extend commensurate forbearance to commercial, residential, or institutional tenants for the duration of the deferment.

Allow suspension of in-person voting requirements for critical and time sensitive municipal fiscal deadlines: Allows suspension of certain in-person votes of residents or taxpayers on certain fiscal decisions, in addition to the provisions in Executive Order No. 7I, for fiscal decisions needed to prevent property damage, protect public health and safety, or prevent significant financial loss, provided they comply with all open meeting requirements of Executive Order No. 7B.

Suspension of reapplication filing requirement for the homeowners’ elderly/disabled circuit breaker tax relief program and for the homeowners’ elderly/disabled freeze tax relief program: Allows recipients of this benefit to receive the benefit for the coming year without recertifying their eligibility.

Substitution of full inspection requirements pertaining to October 1, 2020 grand list revaluations: Allows 34 municipalities to continue with their scheduled 2020 revaluations, which are started up to a year in advance. The statute allows for Data Mailer Questionnaire to be mailed to the property owner when access is unobtainable; this eliminates having to request access, and allows for the revaluation to be completed via questionnaire.

Extension of deadline to file income and expense statement to August 15: Allows taxpayers additional time to complete their income and expense statements.

Suspension of non-judicial tax sales: Suspends foreclosures through non-judicial tax sales until 30 days after the end of the COVID-19 emergency.

For the latest municipal information - CLICK HERE

Statewide information is available by CLICKING HERE

The Newtown Bee will continue serving the community daily with locally-relevant updates at newtownbee.com, and will break immediate news on The Newtown Bee’s Facebook, and Twitter sites.

Please check-in regularly, share, and follow the newspaper’s hyper-local coverage through the remainder of this public health emergency.