Connecticut Postings

A $4 million storm drainage improvement project in Stratford’s town center will close several streets over the next several months.

Beginning July 19, Linden Avenue between Church and Main streets will close to all traffic through the fall while the town improves drainage at several railroad underpasses.

King Street will close from mid-August to December to facilitate the installation of a large culvert and utility relocations under the railroad bridge. Main Street will consolidate into one lane of traffic during a six-week period at some point in the project.Most of the town-funded construction will be completed by fall with some final project components wrapping up next spring.

“This project will be a significant improvement to the drainage at three railroad underpasses in Stratford” said Mayor John A. Harkins. “Not only will the improvements upgrade substandard facilities, they will also increase the image of the town.”

A person was hospitalized at St. Vincent’s Medical Center Thursday evening after falling off a cliff on Great Hill Road (RT 334) in Ansonia near the Seymour border.

Ansonia and Seymour police responded to the scene.

No other information is available.

BRIDGEPORT — The city’s health department lacked a licensed practitioner from December to April of this year and was sending individuals showing symptoms of STDs to New Haven and Norwalk for medication.
Someone, believe it or not through Facebook, told me they were concerned about the city’s inability to test uninsured youth for sexually transmitted diseases and tuberculosis.
They said the youth they referred to the city’s Health Department on East Main Street were in turn being sent to New Haven or Norwalk for these tests because the office had no practitioner.
So on Wednesday I asked Bill Quinn, the city’s interim health director, about this.
Quinn said the health department lost their practitioner last year. A nurse then retired in October and one of the two doctors from the state Health Department that were coming down intermittently to fill in at the clinic was unable to do so after giving birth in December.
With no practitioner and low on staff, the clinic, which does not turn anyone away and charges on a sliding scale, began referring some people to Optimus Health Care for vaccines and testing.
The Health Department only offers immunizations and STD and TB testing. Annual school physicals are also offered for students in August.
Quinn said people who came in requesting STD testing from December to April were given the option of taking the tests at the city’s health department, or if they were showing symptoms, of going to New Haven or Norwalk’s public clinics for treatment.
Quinn said the city’s Health Department was able to administer all tests and vaccines but could not offer treatment because only a licensed practitioner can order medications.
Quinn added, however, that on April 26 the city hired Donna Doxty, an advanced practice registered nurse, and has been able to provide all services and function normally since then.

If anyone has been turned away from the city’s health department after April 26 please contact me at ktorres@ctpost.com or 203-330-6321.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell released a statement Thursday morning heralding a decision by a federal judge to now allow UTC subsidiary, Pratt & Whitney to break a contract with the Machinists’ Union and move 1,000 jobs out of state.

“Today’s ruling is great news for Connecticut, but even better news for the 1,000 Pratt workers and their families who would have been affected if these jobs were moved out of state.  Keeping these high-paying jobs has been a top priority for my administration.  We are certainly pleased with the outcome.”

 “But today’s ruling should not take our attention away from the Number 1 issue: We must continue to improve Connecticut’s business climate and we must continue to make our state more attractive for investment and job creation.”

 Pratt proposed to move jobs out of Cheshire and East Hartford to Florida. But a union lawsuit claimed the company violated a clause in the labor agreement requiring it to make efforts to keep jobs here.