Danbury Mayor on Vaccine Distribution, Schools + New Fire Chief

There's always a lot of things happening in the city of Danbury, and every week the Mayor fills us in on what's going on.

This week, Mayor Joe Cavo talks about the vaccine distribution, Danbury Schools re-opening and the hiring of a new interim fire chief.

A lot of people are concerned with getting the vaccine and the long waits for it. How's the states plan working in the city?

"The city's vaccine distribution is going very well. Unfortunately, we only get a limited number of vaccines from the state, and they only get a limited number from the federal government. We're confident that it will be changing soon as we open up the availability for the next group of people who will be allowed to get the vaccine. There's a lot of planning going on that's been in process and is coming into fruition for how we see this in the next week, the next two weeks, and the next month. As the need for the vaccine increases, we will certainly be increasing our ability to inoculate folks. We are all staying tune, we have our ear close to the rail, listening everyday and just waiting for the next direction from the Department of Health."

Schools are returning in Danbury this week, with the High School getting back to in-person learning next week. How's that going? Because I know some teachers are reluctant to return.

"Well we are hopeful that we can keep everyone safe and in school. It's my goal to get everyone back, it's not my decision, that falls on the Superintendent of schools and his staff. However, we're hopeful that as we move forward with this and the vaccine program, that we can keep our kids in school and keep things going in a forward momentum."

This week I heard you have some news about an interim chief at the Danbury Fire Department.

"Yes, we have actually hired an interim Fire Chief for the department for the next six months while we are processing the hiring of a new chief. It's been very difficult during COVID with the test for chief being postponed until February, and many of the possible candidates haven't been able to take the exam yet. So we have hired a career chief out of the Yonkers Fire Department. He had just retired from Yonkers six weeks ago, and he's starting this week as the interim chief and will be helping us guide the department for the next six months while we work out the hiring process of a new chief."