March 23 marks one year since Governor Ned Lamont implemented the Stay Home, Stay Safe executive order in reponse to the COVID-19 pandemic, ordering non-essential businesses to close, the cancellation of non-essential gatherings, and social distancing guidelines. Many town departments, including North Haven Public Schools (NHPS), announced closures 11 days prior, with First Selectman Mike Freda issuing a state of emergency on March 27, 2020.

While there is now hope with the vaccine distribution, COVID-19 has made it mark throughout the world. According to portal.ct.gov/Coronavirus, as of March 11, 2021, there have been 290,577 total of laboratory-confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases reported among Connecticut residents and 7,765 COVID-19-associated deaths. In North Haven, there have been 1,931 cases (confirmed and probable) with 46 deaths.

“This has certainly been one of the most challenging years I’ve seen in local government in quite some time,” said Freda. “On a variety of different levels, COVID-19 has affected the Town of North Haven, neighboring communities across the state, and throughout the country. There has been a devastating impact on families who have lost loved ones or who have had severe cases of COVID and as time has gone on with the isolation and anxiety aspect, we’ve seen the emergence of more mental health issues.”

Freda and the employees of the Town of North Haven have adjusted to the challenges presented by the pandemic to continue to offer services and help to residents.

With the rollout of the vaccine, Freda and his office are currently receiving about 150 calls a day from residents looking for help in obtaining the COVID-19 vaccine. Freda extends credit to Executive Assistant Valerie Goodkin and Administrative Assistant Tammy Ciaburri for their work in helping residents to navigate the vaccine registration process.

As of March 8, approximately 27 percent of North Haven residents have received their first dose of the vaccine, including 83 percent of the 75 and older population, 68 percent of the 65 and older population, and 18 percent of the 55 and older population.

“As Johnson & Johnson gets more into distribution, our allocations here in Connecticut will increase and as allocations of the three vaccines increase, we’ll be able to start moving more quickly in getting people vaccinated,” said Freda. “We are trying to get back to a point where we balance safety for our residents with reopening to offer things they’ve loved to do in the past like parade or concerts.”

Over the past year, there have been many changes that have affected nearly every aspect of residents’ lives and how the town provides its services. At the North Haven Police Department, Chief Kevin Glenn and his staff had to pivot and adjust many pieces of their daily operations to account for the ever-changing guidelines.

“As a professional law enforcement organization, we are trained for a wide variety of situations that include both normal and extraordinary circumstances, but little prepared us for the uncertainty that the COVID-19 pandemic presented,” said Glenn. “We relied on our core values and guiding principles to develop a plan of action for the onset of the pandemic and the months to come. First and foremost we recognized that we have a duty to both protect and serve the residents within our community, who were facing similar uncertainties.”

One of the first challenges the NHPD had to face was procuring the proper personal protective equipment (PPE) through public and private channels. In addition to support from federal and state resources, there were several private sector businesses that offered resources available through their corporate relationships.

“These supplies were limited and difficult to obtain, but relationships developed over time saw public and private organizations help out,” said Glenn. “The purchase of these supplies impacted the police budget, but we also saw the generosity of our community as many donations were also made. It would be difficult to name all these generous benefactors, out of concern that one might not be mentioned, but all were appreciated.”

Changes in Procedure

Even being outfitted with the proper PPE, the NHPD still aimed to limit the risk of exposure of its officers and staff. A schedule change was authorized and officers were placed on 12-hour shifts, which limited the officers’ interaction with each other at shift changes and minimized the sharing of mutual resources such as patrol cars. Schedules and office assignments were also adjusted for clerical staff, to limit interactions with department employees, as well as the general public.

In addition to adjusting staffing, other changes including limiting entry into the NHPD and taking police reports through email or other non-contact means. When possible, non-emergency calls were taken over the phone or concerned parties were asked to meet officers outside of homes or businesses.

Glenn saw his staff rise to the occasion to continue to serve the public. Despite the department being affected by COVID-19 via sickness or quarantine, the NHPD continued to respond.

“Calls for service requests were not denied and emergency services were delivered without interruption, but with PPE in place, and though we did have staff and their family members contract the virus, with systems put in place, staffing levels were never significantly affected and the services provided to the residents of North Haven were never compromised,” said Glenn.

“As an organization, we recognized the physical and emotional toll the pandemic has taken on both our employees and town residents. We have, as we always do, see the very best and sometimes other versions of people in difficult times,” Glenn continued. “We continued to rely on our training and professionalism to evaluate situations and respond in a compassionate and lawful manner. We enjoyed the benefits of having relationships with our fellow town employees, our local and state partners, as well as our community stakeholders, to work through these difficult and uncertain times, serving our community to the best of our ability.”

The Schools

NHPS has also worked through the uncertain times over the past year. After closing on March 11, 2020, NHPS transitioned to a remote model for the remainder of the 2019-’20 school year.

After countless meetings, surveys, and planning sessions, a plan took shape for the 2020-’21 school year. NHPS opted to begin the school year in a remote-learning model before transitioning through hybrid to a four-day-a-week in-person learning model.

Throughout the current school year, NHPS has seen students in and out of different learning plans as COVID cases trended up and down. As of March 11, there have been 48 staff and 162 students who have tested positive for COVID-19 during the 2020-’21 school year.

Now educators are among those eligible to register for COVID-19 vaccines. With new groups coming online for vaccines, Freda is feeling confident looking forward and hoping to address some of the challenges from the past year.

Business Unusual

In addition to the added costs of COVID-19, North Haven was hit by several storms. The aftermath led to “staggering, non-budgeted expenses” as Freda authorized a nine-week debris pickup after tornadoes ripped through town. Along with the added expenses, there were at least 37 economic development projects in the works that came to a halt due to the pandemic, leading to a relatively low 0.4 percent Grand List growth.

“The pandemic has stymied economic development and although the Grand List yielded $343,000 more in taxable revenue, it wasn’t enough, especially after record growth the year before,” said Freda. “The impact of the storms had a significant impact on this year’s fiscal budget, but I felt I had to do offer that cleanup for the people who had already been through so much and I’m working with the director of finance to smooth that out.”

Throughout the pandemic, Freda has been impressed with the efforts of all of the departments throughout the town in helping to continue services for residents.

“My staff and all of our town employees have done a wonderful job in helping people,” said Freda. “We have to be able to shift and pivot to adjust to the changing landscape of different problems we’re faced with and that’s what we’ve done here in North Haven.”

When it comes to looking toward the future, Freda compares the town’s position to a baseball game, putting North Haven at the top of the seventh inning with an optimistic outlook for the remaining innings.

“These last few innings are as important as the first part of the pandemic,” said Freda. “In order to successfully win this battle, we’ve refocused our efforts more to do the things we need to do to bring us, as a community, to where we’re independent of COVID-19 and don’t have to worry about it. I’m very optimistic. These innings will be critical to get us through and will be comprised of us keeping a positive mindset to help as many people as possible and making sure we’re getting the proper allocation of vaccines and managing the next set of timeframes.”