Town increases COVID-19 funding
NEW FAIRFIELD — The Board of Finance Wednesday night unanimously approved the Board of Selectmen’s $200,000 additional appropriation request for COVID-19related expenses over the next several months.
The $200,000 for COVID-related services and initiatives through April 1, was transferred from the town’s unreserved general fund to its capital and nonrecurring expenditures account.
The COVID-19 budget includes $120,000 for vaccination services, $47,700 for contact tracing, $17,000 for increased emergency management director hours, $13,000 for communications, $4,300 for two community testing sessions and $2,000 for post-clinic cleaning services.
The budget is what Selectman Khris Hall described as a “best guess” of what may be needed in the coming months, so many of the numbers are estimates.
First Selectman Pat Del Monaco said the budgeted services and initiatives will be done in conjunction with Sherman, and New Fairfield plans to seek 20-percent reimbursement from the neighboring town.
About 60 percent of the $200,000 budget is allocated to vaccination services by the Ridgefield Visiting Nurse Association.
The $120,000 is an estimate of what the association
might charge for its services, and the town is trying to reduce the cost by seeking volunteers.
“We are reaching out … to try and get volunteers to perform the vaccinations so that we can hire fewer nurses from the RVNA,” Del Monaco told the finance board.
New Fairfield’s health department will be sending out a letter to doctors, nurses, dentists, registered pharmacists and EMTs in town to see if they will help administer vaccines, Hall said, adding that “a fair number” of people have already offered to volunteer.
The second largest expenditure in the COVID budget is for contact tracing.
Since March, contact tracing in town has been covered by a $25,000 state grant — but the town has “just about exhausted those funds” and will need to start covering the cost, Del Monaco said.
Del Monaco initially proposed $25,000 for contact tracing, but the Board of Selectmen decided to increase the amount to $47,700.
“The board felt that we’re probably going to need more money than that due to the sheer number of cases that we have right now,” Del Monaco said.
About 110 active COVID-19 cases were reported in New Fairfield as of Wednesday night.
“As that number continues to grow, it’s just more hours of contact tracing,” Del Monaco said, adding that the town spent more than $ 11,000 on contact tracing last month alone.