by | May 3, 2022 3:30 pm | Comments (5)
New Haven's pandemic voice of authority, Thomas Balcezak, and YNHH CEO Chris O'Connor at Tuesday briefing.
In a sign that vaccines are doing their job, the latest uptick in Covid-19 cases hasn’t landed more patients in intensive care or on ventilators.
Continue reading ‘YNHH: Covid Uptick Doesn't Translate To ICU Uptick’
by | Apr 25, 2022 9:06 am | Comments (1)
As a reminder that Covid-19 is still spreading, city government is holding events to distribute free masks and at-home rapid test kits.
Continue reading ‘Free Covid Rapid Tests & Masks Available At City Libraries’
by | Apr 19, 2022 1:18 pm | Comments (5)
It’s official: Alcoholic beverages will now be up for grabs at Hamden’s town events.
by | Apr 18, 2022 5:07 pm | Comments (2)
Daughter Michelle Hines: "Beep beep! I'm driving to the babysitter!"
Jeffrey Hines and family pick up activity packs — and job applications — at firehouse open house.
Jeffrey Hines brought his kids to touch a Hamden fire truck — and left with an application to drive the truck one day himself.
In the process, his family participated in a two-pronged mission launched by a fire department looking to bulk up its ranks.
by | Apr 15, 2022 10:35 am | Comments (10)
Thomas Breen photo
City Health Director Maritza Bond at Thursday's budget workshop.
Should the city add two new public health nurse positions to the budget … at a time when 25 already-existing nurse positions are vacant?
by | Apr 14, 2022 9:37 am | Comments (3)
As one of Hamden’s local Goodwill stores will be moving out of its 2369 Dixwell Ave. home, the chain’s officials have told the Independent the nonprofit is officially searching for a spot to reopen elsewhere in town.
Continue reading ‘Update: Hamden Goodwill Hunting For New Home’
by | Apr 12, 2022 11:48 am | Comments (8)
Proposed new Dixwell Ave. home for Hill Health in New Haven.
A New Haven-based nonprofit is looking to bring goodwill to Hamden — in the form of community health care.
by | Apr 8, 2022 4:22 pm | Comments (2)
Laura Glesby Photo
Christine with her backpack of harm reduction supplies.
A few years ago, hospital workers tried to confiscate the purple-gray backpack that Christine carries with her everywhere, she said. At the time, the bag was her only possession; it doubled as a pillow when she slept on the streets.
Rather than sacrifice the bag, Christine refused health care. She has avoided medical centers ever since.
Now, as a volunteer with the Sex Workers and Allies Network (SWAN) who obtained housing, Christine uses that same backpack to carry a form of medical care that hospitals often fail to provide: “harm reduction” supplies like clean needles and condoms, which can mean the difference between life and death for those who use them.
Continue reading ‘SWAN Study Shows "Harm Reduction" Keeping People Safe On The Street’
by | Apr 8, 2022 10:23 am | Comments (3)
Laura Glesby File Photo
Rev. Boise Kimber at 2020 Newhallville Management Team meeting.
Throughout the first of six planned “listening sessions,” Newhallville residents shared cautious optimism about about the general concept — and questions about the details — of an effort to replace a planned methadone clinic with a mental health center in a former school building at 794 Dixwell Ave.
Continue reading ‘"Resilience Academy" Proposers Embark On "Listening Tour"’
by | Apr 6, 2022 5:06 pm | Comments (0)
If a new subvariant were to have created a new Covid-19 outbreak, it probably would have shown up by now in the wastewater — and it hasn’t, according to the man who checks.
Continue reading ‘Wastewater Numbers Suggest No New Covid Surge’
by | Apr 4, 2022 3:24 pm | Comments (20)
Zoom photo
New Haven's pandemic voice of authority, Thomas Balcezak, at Monday's briefing.
If you’re eligible to get a second Covid-19 booster shot, go get it. Especially if you’re over 50 and have an underlying medical condition like diabetes that puts you at “high risk” of contracting a severe case of Covid.
Yale New Haven Health (YNHH) Chief Clinical Officer Thomas Balcezak offered that advice during the regional hospital system’s top doctor’s latest assessment of the ongoing pandemic.
by | Apr 1, 2022 4:00 pm | Comments (13)
Courtney Luciana Photo
Amid ghosts, Jason Buddington hangs out on Congress after APT visit.
Jason Buddington had just picked up his bottles of methadone for the week, and kept an eye out for temptations that could threaten to return him to a life on the streets.
by | Apr 1, 2022 10:57 am | Comments (6)
Josh Watkins: "Help is on the way!"
The director of New Haven’s Community Soup Kitchen is challenging the owner of two natural foods stores in a race to represent Hamden in the state legislature — setting up the latest potential face-off between the two wings of the town’s Democratic Party.
by | Mar 31, 2022 3:56 pm | Comments (2)
Quinnipiac School of Nursing Dean Lisa O'Connor and SCSU College of Health and Human Services Dean Sandra Bulmer sign the new YNHH partnership agreement at Thursday's presser.
Four colleges and universities from across the region signed onto a new partnership with Yale New Haven Health (YNHH) in a bid to boost the number of nursing school graduates amidst a healthcare workforce crisis.
Continue reading ‘New YNHH Partnership With Area Schools Boosts Nursing Programs’
by | Mar 29, 2022 5:10 pm | Comments (21)
Thomas Breen photos
Four of the five Hill corner stores that city and state shuttered.
Ned Woods: Still "a lot of choices" in the neighborhood.
Walking home on Sylvan Avenue, Ned Woods saw that the corner store where he “plays the numbers” was closed — with a large red “Stop-Work Order” sign taped across the front door.
Thanks to a city-state sweep of problem businesses in the Hill Tuesday, Woods would have to seek out another spot in the neighborhood to place his daily bet.
by | Mar 29, 2022 9:47 am | Comments (13)
Laura Glesby Photo
Imam Saladin Hasan at anti-APT-plan rally: "We are pro-help."
The East Rock Community Management Team voted to oppose a proposed methadone clinic in the next-door Newhallville neighborhood, after passionate discussion over whether such a stance would further stigmatize people with opioid use disorder.
Continue reading ‘East Rock Backs "Stop APT" Drive After Debate’
by | Mar 28, 2022 1:21 pm | Comments (6)
Thomas Breen photos
City community resilience director Carlos Sosa-Lombardo (second from left) with social services chief Mehul Dalal, Rev. Abraham Hernandez, and Continuum of Care CEO Patti Walker.
Thomas Breen photo
New uniforms and logos for COMPASS team.
The Elicker Administration’s proposed non-cop emergency response initiative has a new name, new uniforms, a new subcontractor charged with sending out social workers to certain 911 calls — as well as $2 million of newly approved federal support.
What the long-delayed project still does not yet have, however, is a new start date for when its pilot program will actually begin.
Continue reading ‘Crisis Response Plan Gets $2M, Subcontractor’
by | Mar 25, 2022 12:33 pm | Comments (2)
Maya McFadden Photo
Gold and Gateway community cut ribbon on new center.
While helping to cut the ribbon on a newly renamed Gateway Community College (GCC) counseling and wellness center, alum Kelsey Snedeker thought back to when she lost both her adoptive and biological mothers a few months apart — and how Gateway’s wellness center got her through school and her loss.
Continue reading ‘$250K Donation Boosts Wellness Center At Gateway Community College’
by | Mar 24, 2022 4:05 pm | Comments (14)
15-year-old Jamarion Lalanne: Tired of the fighting.
While Hamden High juniors were taking their SATs on Thursday, other students displaced from their usual classes crowded the school’s auditorium — until a fist fight involving two students sent an older staff member to the hospital.
Continue reading ‘Hamden High Fight Sends School Staffer To Hospital’
by | Mar 24, 2022 2:46 pm | Comments (6)
That was fast.
Continue reading ‘Bond Commission Vote Set On Plan B For Methadone Site’
by | Mar 23, 2022 5:58 pm | Comments (29)
Seniors turn out Wednesday to hear from town officials and Hamden Plaza's owner about shopping-center safety.
Miller Memorial Library employee Kathy Galasso wasn’t at work Wednesday — but she sent a public explanation to her boss and 100 fellow seniors from her “uncomfortable hospital bed” where she is currently recovering from two pelvic fractures sustained during a broad daylight carjacking at the Hamden Plaza.
Continue reading ‘After Plaza Attack, Seniors Press Officials’
by | Mar 22, 2022 4:46 pm | Comments (0)
Hamden Mayor Lauren Garrett Tuesday ended the last vestige of the town’s Covid-19 mask mandate by allowing people to enter municipal buildings without covering their faces, effective Wednesday.
by | Mar 21, 2022 9:19 pm | Comments (4)
Andy Bach, 66: Feeling good to be a part of something.
The Chapel Haven Schleifer Center, Inc. celebrated World Down Syndrome Day Monday afternoon with a parade around Westville.
by | Mar 18, 2022 3:11 pm | Comments (4)
Paul Bass Photo
Lux Rosa outside Edgewood School at dismissal time: no Dalmations in sight.
There was a reported sighting of a famous fictional London heiress at a New Haven public school, amid an effort to help students and teachers take a day to chill out during the cruelest academic year in memory.
Continue reading ‘Cruella Deville Spotted On School Grounds’
by | Mar 17, 2022 3:29 pm | Comments (5)
Starting Monday, the city will no longer require its unvaccinated employees to undergo weekly Covid-19 testing.
Continue reading ‘City Scraps Unvaxxed-Employee Testing Mandate’