Board of Health

Kevin A. Elak, MPH City of Middletown Director of Health Department of Health 245 deKoven Drive Middletown, CT 06457 TEL: (860) 638-4960 FAX: (860) 638-1960 TDDL: (860) 344-3521 Middletown Board of Health Minutes from April 11, 2023 Meeting Present: Reverend Robyn Anderson, Patricia DiStefano, Kevin Elak, Yvonne Joy, Stan Opalacz, Linda Salafia Absent: Brian Gartner Jr., Anthony Mangiafico, Jennifer Sparks Call To Order:  Meeting was called to order at 6:02 PM by Patricia DiStefano. Approval of Minutes:  Minutes presented from March 14, 2023 meeting. Motion by Yvonne Joy, 2nd by Patricia DiStefano. All in favor. Motion Passes. Public Hearing for Agenda Items:  None Directors Report:  Director of Health o Director Elak discussed the proposed health department budget for FY2023-2024. Mayor Florsheim directed all departments to submit a budget with a proposed 5% increase. This equates to about $6000 for the health department. Most of the proposed increase was added to the Warming Center line to raise the funding to $25,500. Mayor Florsheim also asked departments to find areas in their budget that can be trimmed. The purpose is the bridge the gap to offset the increase in property  taxes due to property revaluation. We proposed to reduce funding for the Middletown Kids Health & Safety Day from $12,000 to $1. The Mayors proposed budget that was recently released took into account the reduction of the Kids Health and Safety Day funding to $1, a reduction of Public Health Block Grant funding from $18000 to $15000. The budget included an increase in the Warming Center funding from $20000 to $25500. o The federal public health emergency ends on May 11, 2023. This will mean the end of certain activities such as case investigation/contact tracing, daily COVID-19 reports, and other funded programs such as COVID-19 tests and vaccines. More information will be coming out soon. o A new hire will be starting on April 24th. Sara DeAngelo will be filling a Public Health Sanitarian position that was previously held by Vincent Mazzotta who retired in June 2022. Sara, a Middletown resident, recently worked with the Danbury Health Department and has also worked at the Eastern Highlands Health District.  Division Report o Jennifer Sparks not in attendance. A copy of the report for the environmental health, housing, emergency preparedness, and health education divisions were shared via email with the commissioners prior to the meeting. Old Business:  Draft changes to Middletown Code of Ordinances Chapter 107 (Animals) o No updates or discussion. New Business:  No New Business Other Business:  None Adjournment  Patricia DiStefano made a motion to adjourn. 2nd by Stan Opalacz. All in favor. Motion passes. Meeting adjourned at 6:20 PM Respectfully Submitted: Kevin A. Elak, MPH Director of Health