We’ll continue our daily dashboard number roundup, with numbers from the Vermont Department of Health and Brattleboro Memorial Hospital with looks at nearby counties in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
You can find the April dashboard reporting here.
We had a real treat last week. I was looking out the back door as I often do and noticed a few little heads peeking out from under one of our outbuildings. One, two, three… oh my… four baby foxes!
From last Friday through Wednesday we got to watch them come out for the first time to explore the world. Mom came back at regular intervals to check on them, but she’d leave them for extended periods while she went off hunting.
NOTICE OF BOARD MEETING
The Windham Southeast School District Board will meet remotely at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 6, 2020 via Zoom:
Does anybody know the name of the kitchen that opened up on Canal St, where Dominoes used to be?
WHAT IS NEW TODAY
On Monday, May 4, all Town offices will resume daily on-site office functions, in accordance with the following:
The exterior entrances to all Town facilities will remain locked at all times.
Signs will be posted at all exterior entrances clearly indicating that no one may enter the building if they have any symptoms of respiratory illness (fever, cough, and/or shortness of breath).
There will be only 1 employee in each office at any one time, except when more than one employee is necessary to complete a required task.
Employees who are not in the office will continue to work from home in the same manner as they have been during the full closure of Town offices since March 27.
The public is requested to continue to do as much Town business as possible remotely (by email, internet, phone, or mail). Please note that this includes the payment of property taxes and utility bills. Those can be paid by mail or online. By Monday, they will also be able to be paid by dropping an envelope containing your check (no cash) into a locked black drop box that will be attached to the large wooden light pole in the parking lot behind the Municipal Center.
Sandglass Theater has created twenty-five productions since their founding in 1982. Most of these were video recorded for archival purposes, Some of these recordings are better then others, although none is even close to the quality of a good High Density, multi-camera shoot that would be used for broadcast today. Nevertheless, these recordings offer a window into Sandglass’ past for those who want to learn more about their history and how their work has developed over the decades.
“We have decided to make a few of these available for online viewing. They are not meant to equal a live performance; rather they offer insight into where we have been and where we are going.” -Eric Bass
Homelessness has been stopped in its tracks in Brattleboro. As I write this, there is not a single person that I am aware of that does not currently have shelter. This is an incredible achievement. What’s more incredible is that it was accomplished within the last 30 days.
As we saw COVID-19 advance toward Vermont, we at Groundworks Collaborative worked closely with our State partners to establish and enact guidance that eventually led to everyone that was without housing, or who was precariously housed, being able to access local motel rooms. It is quite remarkable that a vision Groundworks has held for our community—that everyone has their basic needs met with dignity—has become a reality during this crisis. This need not be an anomaly.
Groundworks’s staff have answered the call when needed most and I have to share my deep appreciation for their work—especially as they put themselves and their families at risk to come to work each day. Without them, we would not be able to be so effectively meeting our community’s basic needs.
BCTV Channel 8 / 1075 schedule for the week of 4/27/20
Monday, April 27, 2020
4:00 am Hildene – Reading the Natural Landscape – The Rocks
4:52 am The Quarantine Sessions from Next Stage Arts – Ben Cosgrove – Composer, Pianist, Author
5:00 am 50th Earth Day Anniversary Roundtable – Building a Resilient Economy, Community and Earth
6:15 am Doing Life – 184 – Council to Counsel
7:00 am Molly Gray Concert – VT Musicians 4/11/20
This little video says it all:
Brattleboro Senior Meals Menu April 27 to May 1
IMPORTANT INFORMATION AT THE BOTTOM OF THE MENU
Apr. 27 Chicken a la King over Noodles
Whipped Butternut Squash
Green Peas
Chocolate Pudding w/Blackberries
Montpelier, Vt. – Governor Phil Scott today outlined some additional openings as part of the phased restart of Vermont’s economy, introduced last week.
The Governor’s Stay Home, Stay Safe order remains in effect, but with modeling continuing to indicate Vermonters are significantly slowing the spread of the virus, the Administration is taking a cautious, incremental and evidence-based approach to putting Vermonters back to work.
Governor Scott has emphasized the need for continued – and even expanded – vigilance as the state implements its restart strategy, saying: “Restarting the economy requires each of us to take a lot of personal responsibility. Each and every one of us has to do our part to help prevent the spread and protect the vulnerable by adhering to all of the social distancing and public health guidance.”
Brattleboro Tree Warden Dan Adams is the 2020 recipient of the Vermont Urban & Community Forestry Program’s Hamilton Award, which honors a Tree Warden “who has significantly advanced the goals of urban and community forestry through successful forestry practices, effective conservation planning, increased citizen engagement, and active public education.” The award is named for Dr. Larry Hamilton, the former Tree Warden in Charlotte, VT.
A private consulting forester, with over 35 years in the forestry business, Dan was nominated by Brattleboro Director of Public Works Steve Barrett.
• After weeks of intense activity to set up and refine remote operations, the past 10 days or so have been characterized by the steady maintenance of the status quo during the deepest part of the “Stay Home – Stay Safe” restrictions. We are now seeing the very slight re-opening of some activities in society (what Governor Scott has called “re-opening the spigot a quarter turn at a time”) and we are planning for how to slowly, methodically, and safely reopen Town facilities and resume in-person Town services. Daily updates next week and beyond will include detailed information about the steps we will take “a quarter turn at a time” to ramp back up to something resembling normal operations. In the meantime, we thank everyone for your patience and your adherence to the social distancing restrictions that are frustrating for all of us but also are essential to our individual and collective well-being. Stay safe. Stay strong. Stay well.
We are now entering a new phase of pandemic adjustment. The first few months were a novelty and, although many people had a hard time adjusting, it seemed that most people were able to cope while holding out hope for temporary change.
Now that it is clear that we are going to have to change our lives for the long term and that there is no exact time frame for society to re-open, people are losing patience. Early on, people were almost too friendly, trying to be respectful of each other in supermarkets and other places that have been able to remain open. But that friendliness is wearing thin and some people are taking out their frustrations on others.
Then there are the mostly brain-dead yahoos who think their personal liberty is more important than the lives of others as they protest around the country. Thankfully, they are a minority, but they are being supported by Trump. Some governors have decided that reinvigorating commerce is more important than protecting lives. That puts all of us in jeopardy.
MONTPELIER, VT—Arts and humanities organizations in Vermont facing hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic can now apply for emergency relief funding through a new partnership between the Vermont Arts Council and Vermont Humanities.
The new COVID-19 Cultural Relief Grant Program is seeded with more than $700,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020.
Grant awards are based on organization size:
Annual operating budgets of up to $200,000: $5,000.
Annual operating budgets between $200,000 and $750,000: $7,500
Annual operating budget larger than $750,000: $10,000
CHAPTER 17
“The people in Building 27 are scared!”
OK, let’s calm down, let’s relax. Let us put aside fear, as we have nothing to fear, anyway.
For here is a story from grandpa’s owns memories:
My family lived in Beach Haven Apartments from when I was five until we moved out from there to our own, 3-bedroom, semi-attached, cookie-cutter home located at 46-05 216th Street, Bayside 61 – Queens, NYC, NYS.
Montpelier, VT – Governor Phil Scott and Department of Financial Regulation (DFR) Commissioner Michael Pieciak today announced that more than forty additional auto insurance companies have filed plans to return premiums or reduce their rates for Vermont policyholders. DFR has moved quickly to approve these plans which amount to over $14.6 million in savings for Vermonters to date.
All Vermont-based auto insurance companies, along with most major out-of-state insurers, have developed refund plans for Vermonters, which combined, represent approximately 90% of all personal auto policies in Vermont. Each of these insurers has seen a reduction in claims as Vermonters do their part to stay home to comply with the Governor’s Stay Home, Stay Safe directive.
Hello Dosa Lovers,
We are now offering CONTACTLESS CURBSIDE PICKUP AT DOSA KITCHEN with an abbreviated menu plus an opportunity to purchase prepared food and grocery items from dosa batter and sambar to ghee, fermentation crocks, and Dosa Kitchen T-shirts from our store.
When: SATURDAYS + SUNDAYS 12-5
Where: Dosa Kitchen at 34 Elliot Street in downtown Brattleboro
Gardens provide continuity and hope every year, and the Brattleboro Floral Arts & Garden Club shines as a happy reminder that natural beauty continues in our community.
New president (and local mystery writer) Lynne Kennedy is the club’s new president. As the annual April meeting was cancelled this year, and in response to social distancing requirements, outgoing Co-Presidents Lynn Kuralt and Melissa Kuralt passed the keys “on a ten-foot pole”. Other new officers include Vice President Shelia Kinnare, Recording Secretary Frankie Knibb, Corresponding Secretary Judith Wagenbach, Treasurer Libby Lafland and Librarian Carlene McCarty.
The Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), the largest funding source for home mortgages in the United States, has published special underwriting guidelines for the Covid-19 crisis.
Plain English explanation of how the current guidelines will affect home financing appear on Fannie’s website as FAQs:
