cheshirecitizen.com
Volume 11, Number 49
Health departments prepare for eventual vaccine distribution
Thursday, September 17, 2020
A LABOR OF LOVE
By Devin Leith-Yessian Record-Journal staff
Local health districts are updating plans for emergency distribution to prepare for an eventual coronavirus vaccine. “They keep telling us that we should plan for COVID vaccines anywhere from October on,” said Maura Esposito, director of the Chesprocott Health District, which serves Cheshire, Prospect and Wolcott. Anticipating that vaccines will be in short supply at first, distribution plans are focusing on first responders and other priority professions, including hospital staff and teachers. “We have been planning very hard to identify our critical workforce and priorities,” Esposito said. “… We know that the vaccines are going to come and they’re going to be limited.” Once first responders and other priority workers have been inoculated, the vaccine will be available to the general public through drive-up sites set up by municipal health departments and districts, as well as pharmacies and doctors’ offices. The existing emergency distribution plans called for converting schools and other large buildings into distribution centers. However, the contagious nature of COVID-19 has led public health officials to opt for the drive-up model. The Wallingford Health Department has selected Sheehan High School as See Vaccine, A2
A group of Cheshire Land Trust stewards recently tended to a garden of “Summer Splash” annual flowers. The pretty patch of blooms is located on the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail at Lock 12, at North Brooksvale Road. The project is part of the land trust’s participation in the Pollinator Pathway movement, a nationwide effort to counteract the loss of insect habitat and to help create native plant feeding grounds for monarchs and other pollinators. Planting on the main garden is expected to get underway this week with the installation of native shrubs and trees. Pictured, from the front: Katie Bateson, Joanna deBear and Veronica Schaefer. Courtesy of Michele Smith
Traffic camera project set to be done in 2021 By Matthew Zabierek Record-Journal staff
MERIDEN — A state project to add traffic cameras to local highways is expected to be completed in 2021. The state Department of Transportation announced plans a couple of years back to add the cameras to interstates 91 and 691, and Route 15. DOT spokesman Kevin Nursick said in early 2018 that the project
could begin construction in late 2018 and take about two years to complete. Nursick wrote in an email this week that it “looks like early 2021 for completion of the project.” Local highways are a “blind spot” in the state’s system of traffic cameras. Information from the cameras will be useful to motorists, first responders, and law enforcement, according to DOT.
The cameras will show traffic congestion, road conditions, construction and maintenance activity, lane closures, and traffic accidents. Data will be transmitted to DOT headquarters in Newington, where staff will assist in providing information to DOT personnel and state and local emergency responders. “The traffic cameras and electronic See Cameras, A2