Today the Public Health Committee held a hearing on a number of different topics. One of them was legislation to address a problem that the Boys and Girls Club of New Britain has been having with licensing at the state Department of Public Health.
The issue is that the Department, in 2003, told the Boys and Girls Club that their programs would be considered as a summer camp during the summer months. This was apparently a new interpretation of the law. The interpretation seems strange, given that the programs that Club makes available to kids during the summer are pretty much the same as what they offer the rest of the year. But they were told that they needed to meet extra requirements, only during the summer, as a "youth camp".
The result of this, unless changes are made, is that the Club would be able to offer its services to hundreds fewer kids during the summer because it would not be able to afford that extra cost of serving the same number of kids.
The legislation proposed by Sen. Donald DeFronzo, Senate Bill 80, would address this problem by allowing the Club to operate as a "drop in center" with regulations that are better suited to what the Club actually does.
Mayor Tim Stewart and Sen. DeFronzo testified together in support of this legislation. Rep. Peter Tercyak and I are both on the Public Health Committee, and the whole New Britain legislative delegation will be working to get this legislation approved.
The issue is that the Department, in 2003, told the Boys and Girls Club that their programs would be considered as a summer camp during the summer months. This was apparently a new interpretation of the law. The interpretation seems strange, given that the programs that Club makes available to kids during the summer are pretty much the same as what they offer the rest of the year. But they were told that they needed to meet extra requirements, only during the summer, as a "youth camp".
The result of this, unless changes are made, is that the Club would be able to offer its services to hundreds fewer kids during the summer because it would not be able to afford that extra cost of serving the same number of kids.
The legislation proposed by Sen. Donald DeFronzo, Senate Bill 80, would address this problem by allowing the Club to operate as a "drop in center" with regulations that are better suited to what the Club actually does.
Mayor Tim Stewart and Sen. DeFronzo testified together in support of this legislation. Rep. Peter Tercyak and I are both on the Public Health Committee, and the whole New Britain legislative delegation will be working to get this legislation approved.
