Gordon Joseloff First Selectman

t’s hard to imagine but Shelly and I have been in office 100 days. It’s been exciting, at times exhausting, but full of challenges.

At the top of my priority list when I came in to office were four items:

• Emergency preparedness
• Senior tax relief
• Property revaluation
• Technology

We’ve made progress on all of them.

On preparedness, I’ve met weekly with our police, fire, health, and Red Cross officials to make sure Westport is as prepared as it can be for any eventuality – natural or man-made. In addition, I’ve been to two state training sessions.

I’ll make no secret of the fact that of all the possible emergency scenarios that could hit us, I am most concerned about a pandemic flu and the spread of bird flu in Asia, Africa and now parts of Europe. Its consequences should it mutate into humans and spread will be catastrophic.

In April, Westport, Weston and Wilton are participating in an exercise that will simulate a health disaster necessitating the distribution of vaccines or medications to the estimated 50,000 residents of our three towns. It will be a good test of our readiness and, I hope, heighten public awareness of the need for each of us to be prepared for such an emergency.

We are working on a public education program that will tell Westporters how we are preparing and how you should as well. In the meantime, I recommend going to http://www.pandemicflu.gov/