Jaime Foster

I hope you've had a great summer so far. It's not over, but school will be back in session before you know it. It's hard to believe my daughter will be starting first grade this year, and my son just turned one!

While the session is over, we are still working for our constituents. I recently held a bipartisan informational session on the potential of having a Food As Medicine Summit this year in Connecticut. I also joined Comptroller Sean Scanlon, Rep. Carol Hall, and First Selectman Jason Bowsza to talk to East Windsor seniors about the ArrayRx program. I joined members of the Ellington Ambulance Corps and Senator John Kissel to honor several members of EVAC for their selfless response and life-saving efforts on a call last August. Earlier this week, I joined members of Connecticut's federal delegation as they talked about the Save Our Small Farms Act of 2024. 

It should be a nice weekend, with lower humidity, so take this opportunity to visit the Ellington Farmers Market, check out a car show (Ellington Historical Society has one tomorrow), sign up for Sunday's Robot Day through the Tolland County Robotics Foundation, or, looking further down the road, sign up to attend the end of summer Yard Goats game with East Windsor Parks and Recreation. 

I hope you have a great weekend!

Jaime

• Big News from PURA
• Food As Medicine Meeting
• Save Our Small Farms Act of 2024
• Explaining the Motor Vehicle Tax Fix
• Unemployment Drops & New Highs for Job Gains
• Speeding Enforcement Campaign Picks Up
• Talking About ArrayRx with East Windsor Seniors
• Ellington Community Theatre Presents "Guys & Dolls" This Weekend & Next 
• Vernon School Readiness Council & Better Together Initiative to Host 2nd Annual Family Fun Fair
• Connecticut Family Support Network (CTFSN) Hosts a Zoom Program on Autism & Parenting
• East Windsor Parks & Rec Has Open Spots for Survivor Challenge
• East Windsor Parks & Rec Has Tickets for a Night at a Yard Goats Game
• Vernon Chorale to Hold Auditions in September
• Cornerstone Foundation's Clothing Bank Seeking Back-to-School Help
• Vernon Seeks Feedback on Sustainable CT Program
• EVAC Urges Residents to Learn CPR
• How to Protect Yourself & Your Family from Tick-Borne Diseases
• And More! 

Customers need affordable bills, and for those who aren’t eligible for low-income rates when people don’t pay their bills or fall behind, the cost of those debts is socialized. Making sure as many people as possible pay their bills and pay down debt is important for total utility costs.

Unpaid debt is a major driver of Connecticut's high electric rates.

The Customer Legal Advocacy Services (CLAS) program was born out of SB 7 (PA 23-102, section 30) in 2023, where the legislature included a provision authorizing PURA to distribute funds to organizations or individuals providing legal services to assist customers in accessing and navigating the available programs offered by public service companies and to negotiate reasonable amortization payment plans. In response, the Authority initiated PURA Docket 23-11-04 to establish the CLAS Program.

To read PURA's final decision, click HERE.

I'm looking forward to continued discussions to bring a Food As Medicine Summit to Connecticut this year. The state has some passionate people interested in the subject. In my more than a decade career as a research scientist with expertise in nutrition, I’ve spent years advocating for access to fruits and vegetables, primarily as a way to prevent nutrition-related diseases. The field has a mounting body of research that demonstrates that investment in fruits and vegetables as prevention can prevent and, in some cases, reverse chronic disease.

There is ample bi-partisan legislative support for this issue, including Speaker Ritter dedicating a priority bill (HB 5003) to advance a food is medicine initiative, which passed unanimously in both the House and Senate this year.

“We all need to work together to ensure every child has access to nutritional food,” said Rep. Kennedy. “The Food Is Medicine workgroup is composed of individuals from various backgrounds with one common goal - healthy, active thriving kids. I am thrilled to be a part of this bipartisan working group and its tremendous benefits for our Connecticut residents.”

If you'd like to watch the meeting, it was covered by CT-N. You can click HERE to watch it.

In 2023, unprecedented flooding devastated state farms resulting in significant crop loss. In 2022, the state saw one of the worst droughts in recent memory. However, barriers to crop insurance eligibility requirements prevented many Connecticut farms from receiving federal assistance.

The legislation would help farmers who rely on The Non-Insured Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) by lowering the cost of buying coverage, reducing paperwork, and increasing indemnity payouts to $600,000. The bill would require the Farm Service Agency to improve data collection at the county level to improve the accuracy of payouts. The bill includes a way to incentivize and assist farmers in moving to true insurance policies under the Whole Farm Revenue Protection Program.

In addition to the recent income and property tax cuts, this measure will result in lower taxes for the vast majority of vehicle owners and small businesses. These changes were a bipartisan effort to lower the tax burden on Connecticut residents.

Many car owners will see their assessments fall compared to the previous system. The average car will have an 8% lower assessment. The new law changes the assessment basis from JD Power values to the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP), which reduces to an average assessment cut for residents of:

East Windsor: 11.94%
Ellington: 9.29%
Vernon: 9.51%

This reform was originally passed in 2022 in response to rising used car prices during the pandemic. It creates more predictability for future car assessments.

I hope this information helps clarify the recent changes and provides a better understanding of what to expect in the future.

Report highlights include: 

• Six consecutive months of job growth, with employers adding an average of 3,000 jobs per month.
• Connecticut has 1,713,700 payroll jobs and has recovered 105.2% of the jobs lost during the pandemic shutdown.
• Private sector jobs are at a record high of 1,476,600 and 105.7% recovered from the pandemic shutdown.
• At 64.6%, Connecticut’s labor force participation rate remains higher than the national average of 62.6%

This summer, the Connecticut Department of Transportation, in collaboration with state and local law enforcement and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), launched a high-visibility anti-speeding enforcement campaign. The campaign aims to increase awareness and promote safer driving behaviors with increased speed limit enforcement. The campaign runs to September 5, 2024.

In 2022, the last year of verifiable data, Connecticut recorded 115 fatalities due to speeding and reckless driving, highlighting the urgency of addressing this issue.

Speeding accounts for roughly one-third of all traffic-related fatalities nationally. It is a form of reckless driving that jeopardizes the safety of all road users and remains a significant threat to public safety. It also just isn’t a problem on the highway. According to NHTSA, in 2022, 87% of all speeding-related traffic fatalities on American roads occurred on non-interstate roadways.

The program launched in October and is a digital discount card that can save residents up to 80% on their generic medications and 20% on brand-name prescriptions. There are no membership fees, age, or income restrictions to sign up & each user receives their own digital card & unique ID number. The digital discount card is valid at most pharmacies, & the network includes over 64,000 pharmacies nationally.

If you'd like to learn more about the program, visit arrayrxcard.com

Four members of the EVAC were acknowledged for their selfless response and life-saving efforts

On August 11, 2023, EVAC was called to a local address for an unresponsive person. On arrival, John Streiber, who is a veteran and a small business owner in Ellington, was working next door as an electrical contractor.  When he heard the call, he responded immediately with his first response gear.  He immediately recognized cardiac arrest and began CPR with high-quality chest compressions. The patient was successfully defibrillated, and ROSC was achieved.

Bruce Hoffman, Nicole Caron, and Mitchell LaForge responded as officers to the scene to facilitate and coordinate resources for continued care including helicopter EMS activation, Medication Facilitated Intubation, and transport from the scene.  The patient was turned over to the helicopter EMS crew and transported to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, MA. The patient made a full recovery and recently returned to work deficit-free.

Showtimes are:
Friday, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, 2 p.m.
Friday, July 26, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 27, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, July 28, 2 p.m.

For more information, click HERE. 

The new deadline to submit ideas for the use of these funds is July 26; there is an online form option as well as a downloadable PDF available HERE. 

Auditions will be held on Tuesday, September 3, by appointment. Singers of all voice parts are invited to audition.

Visit vernonchorale.org/auditions/ for more information. 

The sustainable team in Vernon has created a survey. Your input is essential. the team would appreciate it if you would complete the survey, which can be found HERE or by using the QR code below. 

To watch our mini interview, click HERE or click the graphic below. You can also learn more about EVAC by visiting the EVAC website.