June 23, 2020
Hello Fellow Hartford Residents,
We wanted to provide you with an update of recent Hartford Selectboard activity.
The Town is working closely with restaurants and businesses as they begin to re-open. The challenge is still complying with town, state and federal laws that have not changed as a result of the COVID19 virus. The talented staff of Hartford has been coming up with creative solutions to get our businesses and restaurants up and running- you will notice new outside seating locations, traffic signs, in the WRJ Downtown. Please come out and support our local businesses and restaurants as they reopen safely after a 10-week suspension of service.
Hartford has done very well keeping the virus at bay thanks to social distancing and mask wearing. Windsor Country has not seen any new cases of COVID-19 In the past two weeks, despite widespread testing. However, Vermont saw an uptick of 12 cases on Sunday, and New Hampshire saw an uptick of 27 on the same day. So we are not out of the woods yet. The practices of mask wearing, hand washing and social distancing continue to be extremely important. Most stores and restaurants have policies now requesting you wear a mask, please respect these policies. Hartford is accepting donated masks at Town Hall and has free mask distribution sites at the Town Hall and all Hartford Libraries. Our thanks goes out to the Hartford’s COVID Committee for coordinating these efforts.
On Friday, June 19th, Hartford held, via Zoom, our first Recognition of Juneteenth Freedom Day. This American holiday, as adopted by the Selectboard on June 9, 2020, will now be celebrated annually in Hartford. This celebration commemorates the abolition of slavery in the United States. Those that missed it can watch the video by clicking https://youtu.be/s_imRfZ-8KA. Our thanks goes out to new Selectboard Members, Alicia Barrow and Joe Major for their leadership in the creation of this event. Along with the Selectboard’s work to execute Hartford’s now complete Strategic Plan for Equity and Inclusion, under the guidance of Hartford’s Committee On Racial Equity and Inclusion (HCOREI), this recognition represents steps towards the Town’s increasing solidarity with Black, Indigenous and People of Color in our community.
Even in this COVID19 environment we continue to work to run the town as efficiently and effectively as possible. Whenever there is interest, we continue to fill vacant seats on town committees, and boards. We still have an open seat on the Selectboard, five open seats on the Town Charter Committee and three open seats on the Hartford Committee on Coronavirus Response. These are all extremely substantive ways to be involved with Hartford Governance at this time. Interested persons are asked to fill out a committee application form and send it to llivingston@hartford-vt.org. More information can be found at www.hartford-vt.org.
Thank you for the precautions you are taking to keep yourself and those around you safe and healthy,
Dan Fraser
Selectboard Chair
Simon Dennis
Selectboard Vice-Chair