NOTICE OF CONSTRUCTION
WEDNESDAY APRIL 29TH
MAPLE AND MAIN ST INTERSECTION

The Main Street Project contractor will begin construction work tomorrow morning. This work involves saw cutting the roadway pavement to remove the old stormwater drainage system, installing erosion control measures at street basins and the primary outlet behind the old Town Hall.

The Chester police will be on site to control safe, two-way traffic flow. To facilitate work access, your cooperation in not parking on the street in this area is kindly requested.

Thank you!







Governor Lamont partners with CBIA and CONNSTEP to distribute free face coverings for essential small businesses with fewer than 50 employees.

Governor Lamont announced that his administration is partnering with the Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA) and its affiliate CONNSTEP on an initiative to distribute free face coverings to eligible, essential small businesses with fewer than 50 employees. Eligible businesses include those  defined as essential businesses  by the Department of Economic and Community Development.

Eligible essential small businesses can request up to two free face coverings per employee by filling out the form found  here .


Requested face coverings will be distributed next Monday through the municipality in which the business is located. The local municipality will then contact businesses with a date, time, and location to receive the requested masks. The distribution will continue while supplies last. The initiative is intended to help small businesses comply with the governor's executive order requiring face coverings to be worn whenever social distancing is not possible.


CTDOL continues to work nonstop to implement the remaining two recently established federal stimulus programs:

  • Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), which provides benefits for self-employed individuals among others, and
  • Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), a 13-week extension that allows eligible claimants to collect the additional weeks after exhausting the 26 weeks of state benefits.

The agency expects to begin accepting applications for PUA on April 30 and plans to have PEUC in operation by mid-May. Both programs will be retroactive.

Dear Chester,

Here are some bits of useful information for today:

CHESTER SELECTMEN ADOPT TAX DEFERRAL RELIEF

Governor Lamont's Executive Order 7S offers several options for municipalities to be able to offer assistance to residents during this difficult economic period. Chester has chosen to participate by offering eligible taxpayers, businesses, nonprofits, and residents a deferment by ninety (90) days of any taxes on real property, personal property or motor vehicles, or municipal sewer use charges for such tax, rate, charge, or assessment from the time that it became due and payable. Commercial and Residential landlords have special requirements and an application to fill out in order to qualify for a deferrment. More information will be forthcoming in the next few days.

While we anticipate that most folks will pay taxes on time, this program is intended to offer assistance to those members of our community who are undergoing challenges such as unemployment, mandatory closure of a non-essential business, illness or other hardship related to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Lenders who hold escrowed tax accounts on mortgages are still required to submit those taxes on time.

More detailed information will be forthcoming in the next few days, including access to a computer fillable application for landlord requests. Stay tuned!

SAVE THE DATE - CHESTER BUDGET HEARING 5/6/2020 at 7 p.m.

This is a very strange year for trying to get anything accomplished. There are many changes to how we will pass our town and school budgets this year, since we cannot hold either a referendum or a town meeting. While the process for approving the budget is temporarily different, the presentation to you of a proposed budget and your opportunity to make comments and/or ask questions is more important than ever.

Chester's Budget hearing is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 6th and will be held via remote "Zoom": meeting. The access codes for the meeting an, links to the budget documents will be sent by special Townwide email by the end of the week and will also be posted on the Chester website. You should also see the official notice of public hearing in Thursday's Valley Courier.

STATUS OF COVID-19 INFECTIONS

Lastly, although the overall rate of hospitalization is down, we have two new positively diagnosed individuals in Chester today - one in Aaron Manor and one from the general population. Just a little hint (read: shove) from the virus that it is not done with us quite yet. I know this isolating and social distancing is difficult, stressful and making most of us weary - please hang in there. It IS working to keep infections down all over Connecticut.

Meanwhile, we have alot of work to do to figure out what will be cancelled and what we can continue to move forward, how to get back to school and when, what we need to do in order to open our businesses, and how to keep the infection rate low in general, until we have some sort of herd immunity, a vaccine, or some other at least partial protection. As someone said to me tonight, "Is it even possible to teach 5 year olds with a mask on?" and "How do you socially distance kids on a school bus?".


Be well,


Lauren


PARTICIPATE IN THE CENSUS!

There are 55 federal spending programs whose funding allocation to #Connecticut is determined by using census data. These programs include school nutrition programs, Medicare, and special education.

If you have not already, you can respond to the census by calling (844) 330-2020 or in Spanish at 844-468-2020, by paper through the mail or online at the below website. #CTCounts

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