Area towns team up on budget plan
SHERMAN — The town of Sherman has decided to get on board with New Fairfield’s proposed $200,000 COVID-19 budget — or at least parts of it.
The Board of Selectmen held a special meeting Saturday morning to decide whether the town would put money into a COVID-related fund that would allow the municipalities to pay for services and initiatives like vaccinations and contact tracing over the next several months.
Last month, New Fairfield proposed and approved the budget with Sherman in mind. First Selectman Pat Del Monaco said the plan was to do the budgeted services and initiatives in conjunction with the neighboring town, from which 20 percent reim
“I went to the hospital semi- conscious,” said Mehri. “It knocked me out.”
Yet in time Mehri’s health improved enough not only for him to be discharged, but to celebrate his 90th birthday with his family in July.
As he grew stronger during the warm weather months, Mehri thought about his Danbury practice, which he closed earlier in the year as the coronavirus was spreading across Connecticut and the tri- state area.
In the fall, Mehri assembled his staff and followed the COVID-19 protocol for reopening. He began seeing patients again in December.
“I am in the same office but because we were closed for six months, most of the patients transferred to another office,” Mehri said. “We are probably down to 15 percent of our patients, but people are coming back.”
Mehri’s grandson, who posted a tribute to his grandfather last week,
said he was inspired by his grandfather’s example.
“He is someone who is always bringing positive attributes and a lot of energy to everything he does, which is part of why I wanted to pay tribute to him,” said Dylan Darius Mehri, of Washington, D.C. “If we respond to this pandemic in responsible and safe ways, there are good stories and good things that can come out of it.”
Parviz Mehri’s son agrees, noting that his father has been practicing medicine for 57 years.
“From what I can tell he is the longest- serving ophthalmologist in U. S. history, and he is still practicing,” said Cyrus Mehri, a civil rights attorney in Washington, D.C., who grew up in Newtown. “It’s a newsworthy story.”
So what is the veteran physician’s secret?
“I don’t have the answer, but I do have a healthy lifestyle,” said Parviz Mehri. “I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t do drugs and I am 90 percent vegetarian.”