A Message from First Selectman Bindelglass

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Good evening, 

Much of the talk around town this week has been about the vaccine. If you are 75 or older you can now register to get the vaccine.  The statewide system is called VAMS. If you go to the Easton website, there is a post in the News tab for "COVID-19 VACCINE ENROLLMENT LINK and Information" that links to our Health Department page.  On that page is a link to the VAMS system where you can sign up. You will need an email address specific to you. Once you sign up, you will receive an email stating that your information was accepted. You must wait for the second email, which will provide a link to where you can make an appointment. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT THE FIRST QUESTION AFTER CLICKING THE LINK IS ANSWERED “NO”.  Again, you must have your own email address. I suggest that if this seems difficult, please try to get a family member to help you. If not, the Senior Center is assisting some of our seniors. They have been a tremendous help to our seniors, and we cannot thank them enough!

Unfortunately, the virus surges on. In Easton, we had 46 new cases from Dec. 27 to Jan. 9, a rate of 43.7 per 100,000. We have returned to in-school learning which is wonderful for our children and hopefully, we are nearing the end of the Christmas/New Year’s surge. Overall, we have had 246 people infected in town with COVID. Transports by EMS for Covid related issues continues to rise. Please be careful. 

The other issue at hand, is what’s going on with our government and in our nation’s Capital. In my posts, I try not to be political, but if you heard the last Selectmen’s Meeting or an account of it in the Courier, I have made my feelings clear. I have quoted people who generally have different political views from my own, but nonetheless have taken a reasonable and bipartisan approach to what is going on, like President George W. Bush. I do believe that the orderly transfer of power is the single greatest strength of our democracy, and if that can be challenged by violent confrontation, then our fundamental way of life is at risk. It is clear that there is a diverse spectrum of views in our town as well.  I agree with our other town leaders and representatives from both parties that free and open, but civil discourse, is the key to our unity as a town. I have full confidence that we can do that and get through this difficult time.  

For those of you who don’t know, our high school, Joel Barlow, has achieved national and even international prominence for our debate teams.  Over the years, our teams have achieved enormous success.  One of the great things about competitive debating is that while the debaters are given the question to be debated ahead of time, they do not know which side of the question they will have to debate from. They have to learn to be convincing on either side of the debate.  How great could it be if we could all learn to do that when confronted with the issues of the day?

I always relish being able to point out the incredible service that our town employees provide. I had two people reach out to me, one expressing her gratitude for our Department of Public Works who responded to her when they witnessed her having health issues as she pulled her car over to the side of the road. The other was from a contractor who has worked in Easton for many years, but could not say enough about our revamped Health Department with Nicole Costantino and our new Sanitarian, Eren Ceylan.

I wish you all a peaceful and healthy weekend.  We are blessed to live in such a beautiful and wonderful town.  I sincerely believe that the coming weeks will underscore that very point.

Dave Bindelglass