Federal Aid To Essex, Chester and Deep River

ESSEX, CHESTER, DEEP RIVER, CT — A letter from State Representative Christine Palm.

Federal Aid to Our Towns
Feb. 16, 2021

Dear Neighbor,

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: 860-526-1300 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.

Please help me reach your neighbors, who may be in need, by forwarding this email to them. Feel free to contact me by email at Christine.Palm@cga.ct.gov with any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Christine Palm
State Representative