nothin Hill North Eyes PPE Purchase With Democracy $ | New Haven Independent

Hill North Eyes PPE Purchase With Democracy $

Allan Appel file photo

Hill North management team regulars Lynda Faye Wilson, Hill Alder Ron Hurt, and Dora Lee Brown.

The Hill North Community Management Team wants to help their neighbors during the Covid-19 public health crisis by buying fask masks and food with extra neighborhood improvement dollars.

Hill North Treasurer Jose DeJesus floated the idea Tuesday night at the beginning of the management team’s first meeting since the local outbreak of the novel coronavirus in March.

He said that other CMTs are considering doing the same with their remaining Neighborhood Public Improvement Program (NPIP) dollars.

I don’t see us using the rest of the money as we were going to do, for community events, by June 30. We could help our less fortunate neighbors or some of our frontline heroes,” DeJesus suggested.

The sign announcing the cancellation of Hill North’s March meeting due to Covid.

The management team meeting took place over the phone via a free conference call program. The team plans to hold its May monthly meeting over the video and phone conference platform Zoom.

Several neighbors called into the meeting. One, Dora Brown (pictured), said that she has been thinking about how the neighborhood can help during the pandemic.

I’m hearing so much about all these places that are short on equipment,” Brown said.

DeJesus said that the management team has around $10,000 left to spend out of the $20,000 it received from the city as part of the annual Neighborhood Public Improvement Program (NPIP).

The Hill North team has already spent its participatory budgeting” dollars on a memorial plaque at the Wilson branch of the New Haven Free Public Library, a P.O. box, business cards, t‑shirts and other local programs and events, DeJesus said.

New Haven Livable City Initiative Executive Director Serena Neal-Sanjurjo said that the department is working on extending the spending deadline for neighborhoods beyond June 30.

She added that some management teams are considering giving NPIP dollars back to the city to spend on personal protective equipment (PPE), such as gloves, surgical gowns, and face masks.

All of those things are becoming an issue. There’s a huge shortage. We’re all in a very precarious place,” Neal-Sanjurjo said.

Emily Hays Photo

Hill North’s usual meeting place at John C. Daniels School in the Hill.

DeJesus said he is excited to talk about the idea further with the management team.

I think we can effect some change during this time,” DeJesus said.

In other Hill North coronavirus-related news:

Other management teams in the city have already redirected previously allocated NPIP funds towards buying PPE.

Most of the call focused on updates from city departments and neighborhood institutions like the Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center on how they are functioning during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Each speaker thanked Hill North for bringing some level of normalcy to the pandemic by holding its CMT meeting electronically.

Thomas Breen file photo

In other coronavirus-related news discussed by the management team Tuesday:

• Hill top cop Sgt. Justin Marshall (pictured) said that the neighborhood has seen an increase in domestic disputes and assaults since the start of the pandemic, since residents are spending more time at home. Marshall said officers are handling more and more cases over the phone in order to reduce their own exposure to the virus, and that the department as a whole has shifted its focus towards responding to violent crime.

You guys are doing a great job,” said Christ Presbyterian Church in the Hill Pastor Chip Anderson. It’s actually the low-level crime that makes us more nervous, but I understand.”

• Yale New Haven Hospital Community Relations Coordinator Andrew Orefice offered a tip on how to wear a mask safely. He said that every time you touch your face mask, you should wash your hands for 20 seconds. Since Covid-19 spreads largely through respiratory droplets, touching the mask and moving it around defeats the mask’s purpose of containing germs.

Likewise, if you pull down your mask and continue wearing it around your neck, you are now breathing in anything that was on the mask. Orefice suggested mask wearers put their cloth masks directly in the laundry and not touch them again until they have been washed in a hot cycle.

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