West Haven lighting windows, steps of City Hall in purple to mark International Overdose Awareness

WEST HAVEN, Aug. 30, 2024 — The city will mark International Overdose Awareness Day on Saturday by lighting the windows and steps of City Hall in purple, Mayor Dorinda Borer announced.

“Overdose awareness is an important public health observance, not just today but every day,” Borer said. “We are observing International Overdose Awareness Day this weekend because we want to bring attention to the challenges of this growing epidemic.

“We also want to let our residents know that we are aware of the problem, we are here to provide available resources, and we are committed to working with partners across the city to address this crisis.”

International Overdose Awareness Day, Aug. 31, is the world's largest annual campaign to end overdose, to remember without stigma those who have died, and to acknowledge the grief of family and friends left behind.

To raise awareness in West Haven, purple battery-operated candles will illuminate the windows and steps of City Hall in the nights ahead, Health Director Maureen B. Lillis said.

Purple is the color of overdose awareness, an international effort to call attention to the epidemic.

To increase overdose awareness, Lillis said the West Haven Health Department will launch a promotional campaign in September. The monthlong campaign will feature a new webpage dedicated to opioids and overdose awareness that includes education and resources for treatment, mental health and Narcan, along with a calendar of related activities throughout the year, she said.

Lillis said the department’s public health team will spend the month providing education and awareness, including pop-up events that distribute fentanyl test strips and pill deactivation packets. The test strips can detect fentanyl in liquids, powders and pills, she said.

Lillis said the department will use its portion of opioid settlement money to fund the awareness campaign and to help stem opioid addiction in West Haven. The money is part of a nationwide settlement reached with drugmakers and pharmaceutical companies for their roles in the national opioid crisis.

Fentanyl is an opioid painkiller many times more powerful than heroin and is typically prescribed to treat severe pain. It now frequently appears as an illegal street drug mixed with other substances, such as heroin, metonitazene or para-fluorofentanyl, the latter of which is sometimes known as China white.

Experts say the growing prevalence of fentanyl in the illicit drug supply is a top driver of the increasing number of overdose deaths in the U.S.

The city’s Health Department and Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security are working with churches and agencies to schedule training for Narcan, a brand name for a device that delivers the opioid-overdose antidote naloxone.

Lillis said anyone who completes the training will receive a Narcan emergency overdose kit, which contains two 4-milligram nasal sprays.

Emergency Management Director Rick Fontana has been installing the grant-funded kits in many municipal buildings and public places around West Haven.

Lillis said the Yale Community Health Care Van, a mobile medical clinic that offers harm reduction services, will also support the city’s awareness campaign by parking at the West Haven Emergency Assistance Task Force food pantry at least once a month to service people in need.

WHEAT, based at 674 Washington Ave., provides food for residents in need.

Jason Heffernan playing Oak Street pier Sunday a.m.

WEST HAVEN, Aug. 30, 2024 — Westie Jason Heffernan will perform from 9:30-11 a.m. Sept. 1 at the Oak Street pier, off Captain Thomas Boulevard, as part of the city's Acoustic Sunday Morning Concert Series.

Grab a coffee and a beach chair and chill out to classic and modern rock ditties played by one of West Haven’s finest troubadours.

Join us!

Girls summer basketball champions

WEST HAVEN, Aug. 30, 2024 — (Pictured): The Red Team, the champions of the Department of Parks and Recreation’s Girls Summer Fun Basketball League, show their trophies at the Veterans Memorial Park courts on Bull Hill Lane on Aug. 13.

Front row, from left: Angelese Torres, Emily Palma, Leia Santana, Amare Bennett and Madison Kelly. Back row, from left: team assistant Ella McDonnel, Jaylena Torres, Lehanna Philogene, coach Juan Torres, Valery Guerra, Zoe Schenkle and Aria Cannon-Perry.

The team defeated the previously unbeaten Gray Team in a 16-13 nail-biter to finish the season 9-1.

The league, overseen by Park-Rec program coordinator Margaret Longo and court supervisor Desmond Lymon, just capped its 24th season.

(City Photo/Margaret Longo)

Ukrainian Independence Day marked with event for 3rd year in West Haven

WEST HAVEN, Aug. 27, 2024 — Mayor Dorinda Borer stood with members of the Ukrainian American community in front of City Hall on Aug. 23 in observance of Ukrainian Independence Day.

The public event marked the eve of Ukrainian independence and was organized by advocacy Chair Ann Salemme of the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America Branch 108 of New Haven.

The ceremony included poignant remarks by Salemme, Borer, West Haven Fair Rent Commission Chairman Steven R. Mullins and Ukrainian American Veterans Post 33 Cmdr. Carl Harvey.

Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, which Russia launched on Feb. 24, 2022, a New Haven-based support network that includes the UAV post and St. Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Catholic Church has shipped $8.2 million worth of donated humanitarian supplies to Ukraine’s western city of Lviv to aid relief efforts, said Harvey, of Orange.

The ceremony also included the singing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Prayer for Ukraine,” a patriotic Ukrainian hymn, led by the gathering of more than two dozen Ukrainians, including a pair of young refugees holding up a blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag and others holding up a “Glory to Ukraine, Glory to the Heroes” flag.

The half-hour event culminated with Borer presenting Salemme, of West Haven, with a proclamation declaring Ukrainian Independence Day.

“West Haven stands united with Ukrainians in commemorating their independence by lighting the steps of City Hall in blue and yellow for the first time,” said Borer, reading the proclamation.

“As Ukraine marks its 33rd anniversary of renewed independence, let us recommit ourselves to helping the Ukrainian nation to reclaim full sovereignty over its international borders and to remember the heroes who sacrificed their lives to ensure freedom and happiness for future generations,” the mayor said.

Salemme followed by presenting Borer with a bouquet of sunflowers — a symbol of peace and resilience for Ukrainians — along with a Ukrainian flag and a certificate of appreciation.

Reading the certificate, Salemme said: “We present this certificate in recognition of your leadership and commitment to supporting Ukraine in its fight for sovereignty and peace. Issuing your proclamation and the lighting of City Hall in blue and yellow sends a powerful message of solidarity to the Ukrainian community in the West Haven area and beyond.”

In 1991 the parliament of Ukraine proclaimed the nation’s independence, taking the first step toward establishing a free and democratic state.

Borer joins Laborers Local Union 455 to give out backpacks to K-12 students of Spring Heights

WEST HAVEN, Aug. 27, 2024 — (Pictured): Mayor Dorinda Borer and City Council Chairman Nicholas A. Pascale, D-at large, hand out a free backpack to Carrigan Intermediate School seventh grader Zuhaib Shah of Savin Rock Communities’ Spring Heights Apartments on Glade Street on Aug. 23.

At least 100 backpacks, each containing a pencil bag with a ruler and a pencil sharpener, were donated by Laborers Local Union 455’s back-to-school backpack program and were distributed to K-12 students living at the public housing complex.

Each student also received a notebook and a box of crayons donated by the East Haven-based local, along with coloring books, pencils, water bottles and T-shirts given out by Sgt. Pat Buturla and crime prevention Sgt. Scott Allard on behalf of the West Haven Police Department.

Other backpacks benefited the West Haven Community Hose’s McKinney-Vento Homeless Students Case Management Program.

The three-hour backpack giveaway was organized by Andrew T. Inorio, the local’s business manager and secretary-treasurer. Inorio was assisted by office manager Georgette Richardson and laborers Jorge Rivas and Mark Simeoli.

Other participants included Community House Executive Director Amy Guay-Macfarlane, Development Director Alan Olenick and office/ERSEA assistant Jhoely Castillo, as well as Kiara Davila, Savin Rock Communities’ assistant resident services coordinator.

The Community House officials also enrolled preschoolers in the social service agency’s Head Start program at 227 Elm St. for the new school year.

See more photos on the city website.

(City Photo/Michael P. Walsh)

Borer requires all city employees to attend training on the Connecticut Freedom of Information Act

WEST HAVEN, Aug. 27, 2024 — City employees attended mandatory training on the state Freedom of Information Act at City Hall on Aug. 22.

Mayor Dorinda Borer required all West Haven employees, including public safety officials, to attend the training session in the Harriet C. North Community Room as part her administration’s “commitment to fostering governmental transparency.”

The training focused on the FOI Act, enacted by the General Assembly in 1975, and was led by Russell Blair, the director of education and communications for the state Freedom of Information Commission.

The FOI Act is “a series of laws that guarantee the public access to public records and public meetings of governmental bodies in Connecticut,” according to the commission’s website.

Blair said the commission settles disputes that arise when residents believe agencies are not following the law.

Borer greeted employees at the nearly 90-minute session, which included a Q&A, and called the training “significantly important” for the city’s workforce.

“Residents are entitled to transparency from their government,” the mayor said. 

Employees of City Hall and satellite offices attended the training, with the next phase slated for elected officials and board and commission members, Borer said.

Blair discussed FOI Act basics, which he defined as “anything dealing with city business,” as well as fulfilling an FOIA request.

The FOI Act grants public access to meetings and records of public agencies, but he noted that “public agencies cannot be required to conduct research or produce documents that don’t exist.”

The city corporation counsel’s office handles all FOIA requests from the public.

Corporation Counsel Paul J. Dorsi said the public should direct FOIA requests to paralegal John Sykes at sykes@westhaven-ct.gov.

Tony Inzero Farmers Market every Thursday on West Haven Green, every Saturday at Oak Street Beach

WEST HAVEN, Aug. 27, 2024 — The Tony Inzero Farmers Market is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Thursday on the Green, at Campbell Avenue and Main Street, and every Saturday next to the Oak Street Beach parking lot, off Captain Thomas Boulevard.

The market will include state farmers selling homegrown fruits and vegetables and crafters selling homemade wares through Oct. 12.

Parking is available on Campbell Avenue and in the City Hall municipal lot, 355 Main St., as well as in the Oak Street municipal lot and on Palace Street. Oak Street is on the senior shuttle route and the CTtransit route.

The farmers market was dedicated in 2010 in memory of Anthony F. “Tony” Inzero, a leader in the downtown business community who co-owned Flower Affair on Campbell Avenue with Betty DelVecchio for many years. Inzero was a founding member and longtime president of the West Haven Business Association who spearheaded a variety of events and programs to drum up business for fellow merchants, including the first farmers market in 2000.

Inzero, who lived in Hamden, died in 2009 at age 59.

Mayor Dorinda Borer launches new marketing video showcase, ‘Summers in West Haven — Feel the Vibe!’

WEST HAVEN, Aug. 21, 2024 — Mayor Dorinda Borer has launched “Summers in West Haven — Feel the Vibe!”, the latest video showcase in the city’s new promotional series, “Discover West Haven.”

Check out the video.