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05/05/2020 12:00 AMHaving now served as the town’s mayor for six months, half of Joe Carfora’s term has been affected by COVID-19. He and his administration are not only making adjustments to town procedures and protocols to ensure safety and uphold executive orders, but they are also “cleaning up” town finances.
“The biggest challenge is to get this town on solid footing financially,” said Carfora.
As far as COVID, Carfora said the town has been “instituting changes top to bottom” when it comes to care of facilities, town fields, and the beach. Carfora has also implemented financial protections for purchase orders with a requirement for all purchases to be signed off on.
“Our public works crews are doing what they’ve always wanted to do, which is do things in-house to serve and beautify our community,” said Carfora.
Due to Governor Ned Lamont’s executive order, all public town meetings are being held remotely using Zoom. Residents can access the dial-in information on the meeting agendas, which are posted on the town website.
“It’s been a learning experience and we are now rising to the challenge and participation levels are great,” said Carfora. “Our town attorney has been working with our clerks. It is quite the undertaking, but we are getting there. I am very proud that even though the governor gave communities a pass on completing a full budget process for a municipality, that is not the case with us. We are going through the entire process, just via Zoom.”
Another challenge that many municipalities have also faced is limited supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE), particularly the N95 masks used by those in direct contact with people carrying the virus. East Haven has received a limited number of supplies from the state, but Fire Chief Matt Marcarelli is confident in the town’s supply.
“N95s are in short supply but Mayor Carfora and the Town Council’s appropriation to manage the pandemic allowed us to source PPE from a multitude of sources and not rely on the state,” said Marcarelli. “We have a supply on hand which held us over until the surge came. We are not sure how long the supply will last as this is a protracted event, but we are hopeful that soon the supply chain will be restored and we will have N95 respirators in regular supply.”
Carfora thanked Marcarelli and all of East Haven’s first responders, as well as many others who are serving the community, including front-line workers, healthcare workers, and teachers and support staff.
“Watching our community coming together has been an experience I’ll never forget—the heartfelt compassion from our community rising together to help one another is by far one of the best things to witness from this pandemic,” said Carfora. “Our children and Board of Education are making great strides with distance learning. Our East Haven teachers and support staff are going above the call of duties to educate our children. Parents have become teachers, some even while working from home. Everyone is doing their part and deserves recognition.”
In East Haven, the community come together to participate in and cheer on the East Haven Proud Motorcade as well as take part in birthday parades for the town’s children. Michael Roy is traveling the town in his decorated pickup truck playing music not only to lift spirits, he has donated masks to the community and collected donations for the food pantry. East Haven Food Pantry volunteers have remained busy receiving donations and distributing food to those in need.
“They have been working around the clock to feed our community,” said Carfora. “I can continue with a list of the great things are community has done together to continue to thrive through this pandemic, but I just want everyone to know they are appreciated. Our front-line workers, healthcare, first responders, even those staying home, everyone is doing their part to slow the spread.
“People have been kind and I greatly appreciate that. I want to thank our first responders and their families and offer my prayers to everyone,” added Carfora. “We must continue to practice safe social distancing. With the warmer weather approaching us, we need to continue to follow CDC guidelines for social distancing. When visiting town greens, beach, etc., social distancing still needs to remain in effect.