Danbury Mayor Talks COVID-19 Vaccine and the New Career Academy

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 COVID-19 vaccine and what local residents have to do to get signed up, plus he's got the details about the new Career Academy coming soon to Danbury.

A busy time in Danbury, COVID-19 numbers climbing and everyone's wondering about how they can get signed up to receive the vaccine.

"We have COVID numbers that are showing us that we're not where we want to be, but our vaccine program has been rolling out here in Danbury and we've been vaccinating First Responders, Doctors, Nurses, Police, Fire Fighters, EMS people and it's been going exceptionally well. Our Director of Health has done a tremendous job with the programs and every week it gets busier and busier as the state expands groups that are eligible. We're doing the best we can with the number of vaccines we get every week."

What do residents have to do to get the vaccine once they are eligible?

"So when you're eligible for a vaccine, you have to register through the VAMS System which tells you the location to go for your vaccine. There's no one specific spot that you go for your vaccine, you get instructed through that program on when to go and where to go for it."

You have some exciting news about the Career Academy which should be coming soon to the Summit in Danbury. What can you tell us about it and how is the progress on making this a reality?

"Well under former Mayor Mark Boughton, he created the idea for the academy to deal with school expansion, and with the economy being so good over the last few years, Danbury was growing. With that growth comes people that move here to access jobs and with those people come children. We have a responsibility to educate those children and we're forecasting the numbers to continue to grow. So the Mayor had the idea for a 1200 seat Career Academy which would be located at the Summit in Danbury (formally the Matrix). The great part about this whole deal is that the Mayor was able to get a commitment from the State of Connecticut for a reimbursement of eighty percent of the money we spend to build the Career Academy. The numbers are being kicked around and it looks like the overall cost to build it would be somewhere in the 93 million dollar range for the cost, then you have the 80% reimbursement from the state. So basically you get a 1200 seat academy with the state paying 75 million of the 93 million dollars. It's a great deal and a great deal for the taxpayers. The committee has already been formed, then we go to a referendum in June on that, and hopefully we'll be successful and the voters of Danbury will support that. Then we can form another committee and discuss curriculum and how we see the school operating and then we'll move from there."