Cavendish Masking Rule

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At the Dec. 13 Select Board, the Cavendish Select board unanimously adopted the following Rule requiring the wearing of face coverings in public spaces. Masks are available for free at the CHS Cares Closet, next to the CHS Museum on Main St. in Cavendish Village. Masks are in the upper left hand corner, are free and available 24/7.

TOWN OF CAVENDISH VERMONT: RULE REQUIRING FACE COVERINGS INDOORS IN PUBLIC SPACES

Section 1. Authority. The Rule is adopted by the Select Board of the Town of Cavendish under authority of Act 1, an act relating to temporary municipal rules in response to COVID-19 (2021).

Section 2: Purpose. The purpose of this Rule is to require all individuals to wear face coverings while indoors at locations that are open to the public in order to prevent and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and protect the public health and safety of the Town of Cavendish.

Section 3. Requirement to Wear Face Coverings. All individuals in the town of Cavendish shall wear face covering while indoors at locations that are open to the public.

Section 4. Exceptions. Face coverings are not required for:

• “children under 2 years;” “ A person with a disability who cannot wear a face covering or cannot safely wear a face covering for reasons related to the disability;” “A person for whom wearing a face covering would create a risk to workplace health, safety, or job duty as determined by the workplace risk assessment;” “ Any person while eating or drinking inside any establishment that serves food or beverage;

Section 5. Other Laws. This Rule is in addition to all other ordinances and rules of the Town of Cavendish and all applicable laws of the State of Vermont. All ordinances, rules or parts of ordinances, rules, resolutions, regulations, or other documents inconsistent with the provisions of this Rule are hereby repealed to the extent of such inconsistency.

Section 6. Severability. If any section or provision of the Rule is held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid such findings shall not invalidate any other part of this Rule.

Section 7. Effective Period. This Rule shall take effect immediately upon the approval by the Select Board and shall remain in effect for a period not to exceed 45 days following its initial adoption. The Select Board shall meet during the 45-day period in which this initial Rule is in effect and vote either to rescind this Rule or to extend it for an additional 30 days. Thereafter, the Select Board shall meet at a minimum once every 30 days to reconsider this Rule, at which meeting the Select Board shall vote either to rescind this Rule or to extend it for an additional 3—day period. The filing of a petition under 24 V.S.A. 1972 and 1973, shall not govern the taking effect of this Rule.

Adopted by the Selectboard of the Town of Cavendish at its meeting on this 13th day of Dec., 2021.

Signatures of Select Board, Town of Cavendish Georg Timko, Sandra Russo, Mike Ripley and Robert Glidden

Cavendish Transfer Station: Composting

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The following is from the Energy Committee regarding what is, and what is not, compostable at the Town Transfer Station.  Please no plastic or containers in the Transfer Station compost pile!

When the Vermont legislature banned food scraps from the trash and mandated that all Vermonters compost food scraps, the Town of Cavendish engaged the services of a company to haul away those scraps each week. That quickly became hugely expensive, so the town decided to try a different route.

For several months now the Cavendish transfer station has been composting on site. Any Cavendish resident with access to the transfer station can use the new composting section for no extra charge.

What must stay out of the trash and instead be composted includes those parts of food items that are typically discarded rather than eaten such as peels, rinds, cores, eggshells, seeds, pits, bones, coffee grounds and paper filters, loose-leaf tea & paper tea bags, and fats/oils/grease. It also includes food plate scraps or leftovers and any food that went bad. And not just food must be composted - if it was once part of something alive, like a plant or animal, it does not belong in the landfill. So, grass clippings and any other yard debris must stay out of the trash and can be put into the compost.

Eventually the newly created compost will be available to Cavendish residents free of charge, although it will take time for the scraps and waste to become useable compost. Meanwhile the town employees have asked that people be more careful in what they throw into the compost pile. Plastic bags are not compostable. Note-plastic bags can recycled at Shaw’s and other grocery stores. Dump the contents into the pile and either throw the plastic into the trash or take it home and clean it for recycling. Most plastic food containers and utensils are likewise not compostable, even if the manufacturer says they are. Food scraps will compost in a few months, the containers and utensils will take many years if at all to compost.

For those people who have a yard where they can set up a compost pile or bin, there’s no reason to bring that food and yard waste to the transfer station. Instead, create your own compost. It’s usable to enrich the soil of lawns, gardens, and potted plants.

For information on how to make your own compost, or about any aspect of food waste disposal, go to https://dec.vermont.gov/waste-management/solid/materials-mgmt/organic-materials

Cavendish Update 12/10/21 Jobs/Masks/News/Events

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VIEW THE CAVENDISH VT FACEBOOK PAGE DAILY FOR THE LATEST NEWS You don’t have to be a Facebook subscriber to see this page.

12/10/21

1.    Cavendish Info

2.    Job Postings: Town & Mack Molding

3.    Covid update

4.    Events

Winter Weather Advisory has been posted for our area from 3 AM-10 AM on Saturday. Mixed precipitation, freezing rain. Ice accumulations.

Sunday is the Proctorsville Christmas Ghost Walk. Meet 7 pm in front of the War Memorial (across from Svec Park).

 

1. CAVENDISH INFO

• Local mask mandates

• Letters to Santa Now Open at the Cavendish Post Office: Children have their own mail slot to use at the Cavendish Post Office so they can drop off their letters to Santa. Thank you Miguel (post master).

• TRSU Looks to align school schedules for both its districts: Superintendent Lauren Fierman noted at the recent TRSU meeting, she would like to see a single schedule for all schools in the TRSU. Currently, CTES has an early release on Tuesdays in order for the teachers to have ”embedded professional development time.” Chester Telegraph

• Christmas Concert: St. James United Methodist Church (570 Main St., Proctorsville) will be holding a Christmas Concert on Dec. 18 (Saturday) at 5pm. Admission is free. Donations welcome. FMI:802-455-6500

• Grant program to help homeowners settle unpaid mortgage, utility bills: A program that aims to help eligible Vermont homeowners settle thousands of dollars in unpaid dues is expected to launch by January. VT Digger

 

2. JOB POSTINGS: The Town of Cavendish has an immediate opening for a Temporary, full-time Highway Department crew member. Applicants are required to have current CDL, good driving and work records and must be in good physical health. Solid experience in construction and heavy equipment operation, including dump truck operation, is essential. A comprehensive job description is available to serious applicants. Applications, resumes and inquiries should be directed to: Brendan McNamara, Town Manager, Town of Cavendish Municipal Building 37 High Street, P.O. Box 126, Cavendish, Vermont 05142. (802) 226-7291. Cavendish is an Equal Opportunity Employer

 Mack Molding will be holding a job fair on Wed. Dec. 15 from 8-4 at the Cavendish location (2044 Main St). Employee referral bonus $500. Sign on Bonus $3,000. Flexible part time hours available. $15.63/hr-$22/hr.

3. COVID UPDATE: For local information on testing, vaccinations, boosters, notifying contacts as well as other resources, please see the Cavendish COVID-19 Resource Guide.

WEEKLY DATA:

• Cavendish & Surrounding Towns: Once again, Cavendish- 8 new cases (77 total); Chester-36 new cases (299 total) and Springfield -124 new cases (974 total) have set records for highest number of new cases in the past week. Ludlow had 7 cases (152 total) and Weathersfield had 8 new cases (123 total).

• Schools: The VT Dept of Health’s school report for Dec. 6, lists CTES as having no new case in the past week with 2 cases total. Note, we are aware of at least two other cases at the school. VT Digger recently posted an article State, local data show discrepancies in Covid-19 cases in Vermont schools, which helps to explain why this is happening.

Green Mountain had 6 new cases this past week, for a total of 14, while Ludlow and Chester elementary schools reported no cases. There were 246 cases last week in Vermont schools and 2,491 since the start of the school year. 

• State: VT continues to set new records for number of new daily cases as well as high daily hospitalizations. Cases of Covid have doubled in the last six months.

Tuesday’s Modeling showed that VT cases have increased 54% over the last 7 days and increased 31% over the last 14 days. A post-Thanksgiving surge is underway with the not fully vaccinated having a 95% increase in the last 7 days while fully vaccinated increased 52%, Those not fully vaccinated were 15 times more likely to require hospitalizations in November compared to those who were fully vaccinated. Health Commissioner Dr. Levine noted Tuesday that 91% of those currently in the ICU were not vaccinated. He also noted two pediatric hospital cases. Over the last 7 days cases have increased for all age groups. However,  VT also has the highest testing rate so is more likely to capture more positive cases.

Seropositivity (percentage of tests that are positive) has dropped from 5.2% to 4.8% in the last week. Vt’s case count is 54,321 with 426 deaths and 87 people in hospital, 23 in the ICU.  

TESTING: On Tuesday, the Governor and his team discussed a new approach to testing. From now until March/April, there will be a steady move to replace the PCR testing with LAMP testing, which does not require a lab and can provide results in an hour. This testing is viewed as reliable as the PCR and is currently in usedas part of “Test to Stay” in the schools. Note that a negative LAMP test is sufficient to shorten a 14-day quarantine or return to school after an illness. The second component will be testing at home using rapid antigen testing.

According to the Governor, We’ve been working to secure thousands of rapid at-home tests. ..We want to have tens of thousands of these available at no charge to Vermonters. ..You might have seen that President Biden is working to allow Americans to be reimbursed for at-home tests in the New Year. Commissioner Pieciak and his team at DFR [Dept. of Financial Regulation]  had already been working on this, so we’ll launch this in Vermont within the next couple of weeks.

DFR today will issue an emergency rule requiring commercial insurers to cover the cost of rapid COVID-19 take-home tests, it will be retroactive to December 1.

Once the emergency rule is fully in place, those with commercial insurance will be able to get take-home COVID rapid tests at a pharmacy, without out-of-pocket costs.  We believe this will cover about 140K Vermonters, and we’re working to extend it beyond commercial insurance, in hopes of covering most Vermonters. And again, we think this is an important step to take now and we encourage people to use tests before & after holiday gatherings.

This will be in addition to giving our tens of thousands for free, once we finalize logistics with the federal government and other partners.

Currently, those on Medicaid or Medicare are not eligible for this reimbursement. Efforts are being made to make these tests available for free who don’t qualify for the reimbursement program.

If you test positive on a home test: A positive self-test result means that the test detected the virus, and you are very likely to have an infection.

-       Stay home or isolate for 10 days, wear a mask if you could have contact with others, and avoid indoor gatherings to reduce the risk of spreading disease to someone else.

-       Contact your health provider about you positive test. It’s important to talk to your provider ASAP. Your provider can determine if you are a good candidate for monoclonal antibodies or some of the newer medications that can reduce severity and need for hospitalizations.

-       Notify Contacts: Use How to Notify Contacts if you Test Positive for Covid

-       Notify the VT Health Dept. using the VT Covid-19 Self-Test Reporting Form

OMICRON: Several studies have been released this week. Preliminary results from two small studies strongly suggest the vaccines will be much less effective at stopping infections from the omicron variant but will still likely offer protection against severe disease. The study in Germany also indicates that a third shot, or a booster, will partially recover the effectiveness of the vaccines, at least for a few months.

 Omicron variant is four times more transmissible than Delta

NEWS/LIT REVIEW

• Agency of Human Services Secretary Mike Smith to retire at the end of this month: Mike Smith, a critical player in Vermont’s pandemic response and the state’s secretary of human services, is retiring at the end of the year. 

• State kid-vaxx incentive program could bring thousands of dollars into TRSU schools

• FDA has authorized Pfizer booster for those 16-17 at least six months after their last dose.

• DHMC’s No Visitor policy (with certain exceptions) goes into effect Dec. 10. Rutland is now restricting visitors as is Springfield Medical Center.

 

4.EVENTS

DECEMBER 12 (SUNDAY): Christmas Ghost Walk-Proctorsville. 7 pm, meet at the Proctorsville War Memorial. Free and open to the public. Donations welcomed.  FMI: 802-226-7807 or e-mail margocaulfield@icloud.com

DECEMBER 13 (MONDAY): Cavendish Select Board Meeting, 6:30 pm Cavendish Town Office.

DECEMBER 18 (SATURDAY): St. James Methodist Church (Proctorsville), Christmas Concert, 5 pm. Free Admission. Donations welcome

DECEMBER 23 (THURSDAY)-JANUARY 2 (SUNDAY): Schools holiday break

DECEMBER 24 (FRIDAY): Christmas Eve Town Office Closed

DECEMBER 25 (SATURDAY): MERRY CHRISTMAS

DECEMBER 26 (SUNDAY)-DECEMBER 31 (SATURDAY): HAPPY KWANZA

DECEMBER 31 (FRIDAY) New Year’s Eve Town Office Closed

JANUARY 17 (MONDAY): Martin Luther King’s Day Town Officer Closed

CA❤︎ENDSH VAXXING & MASKING TO PROTECT SELF & OTHERS

    IF YOU READ THIS PLEASE HELP SUPPORT CAVENDISH CONNECTS

 

 

 

 

Cavendish Update 12/3/21: Volunteers needed/News/Events

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VIEW THE CAVENDISH VT FACEBOOK PAGE DAILY FOR THE LATEST NEWS You don’t have to be a Facebook subscriber to see this page.

12/3/21

1.    Cavendish Info

2.    Covid update

3.    Events

Saturday is Proctorsville Fire Dept’s “Stuff a Fire Truck” at Shaw’s Plaza to benefit BRGN food shelf. The Snow fleas will be selling Holiday Gourmet Gift Baskets from 9-2 in front of Singletons and the Cavendish Library Book Fair will be hosting a Pirate Party from 1-2.

1. CAVENDISH INFO

• Urgent need for Snow Sports Program, on-snow, volunteers CTES is planning to have their Snow Sports program. In order to run it, they must have a 3:1 student to volunteer ratio. Volunteers have to be fully vaccinated and pass a background check and be finger printed. The program will run for 6 Tuesdays starting on 1/11/22 and ending on 2/15/22. Signups for the program will be Friday, Dec. 3rd from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM and Saturday, Dec. 4th from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM. If there are not enough on-snow volunteers, the program will only be able to operate for some grade levels or be cancelled completely. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Jarrod Harper at 802-770-2892 or by messaging him directly on Facebook. Learn more about the program: Lack of volunteers threatens CTES Snow Sports Program

• GMUSD Finance Committee Gets first look at proposed FY23 budget: The almost $15 million  spending plan for running the high school plus Chester-Andover and Cavendish Town elementary schools represents a 3.28 percent increase over the current year, but there are also Covid-19 related funds and other grants that will supplement the operation but do not appear in this budget. Several of the TRSU recommendations, including a sole principal position for Cavendish Town Elementary School and the proposed $40,000 Fletcher library contribution, were approved. CTES in particular saw the biggest school increase recommendation from nearly $1.6 million to over $1.8 million, up 15.36% from last year. One key factor in the increase was the recommendation to return to a sole principal for Cavendish rather than the shared administrative model used since the resignation of former CTES principal Deb Beaupre at the end of 2020. Chester Telegraph VT Journal

2. COVID UPDATE: For local information on testing, vaccinations, boosters, notifying contacts as well as other local resources, please see the Cavendish COVID-19 Resource Guide.  

WEEKLY DATA:

Cavendish & Surrounding Towns: The VT Dept of Health issued town data for the past week, minus one day due to the holiday. Cavendish with 7 new cases (69 total), Chester 24 new cases (263 total) and Springfield 90 new cases (850 total) all set records for number of new cases in a week. Ludlow had 4 new cases for a total of 145.

Schools: The VT Dept of Health’s school report for Nov. 29 reports CTES had no new case in the past week and list 2 cases total. Green Mountain has 5 cases for the past week, for a total of 8.  Ludlow Elementary had no new cases for a total of 8 cases, while Chester Andover Elementary had 2 new cases (14 total).  There were 183 cases last week in Vermont schools and 2,244 cases since the start of the school year.  Note Springfield Elm Hill School has been closed this week due to a Covid-19 out break.

State: According to Commissioner Pieciak, Tuesday’s Modeling data is skewed because of the Thanksgiving holiday. Testing was down by 32% this past week. VT cases decreased 12% over the last seven days and decreased 16% over the last 14 days. The state now has had over 50,000 cases

Those not fully vaccinated were 13.5 times more likely to require hospitalization in November compared to those fully vaccinated and boosted. While Covid cases have been increasing over the last three months, the number of deaths has declined from 50 in September, 46 in October and 34 in November.

The best indicator of what’s going on is the number of hospitalizations. There has been a 12% increase in the 7 day hospitalization average over the past week The unvaccinated accounted for  71% of hospitalizations over the last seven days. There has been a 31% increase in the 7 day ICU usage, with 81% being unvaccinated. VT reached a record high on Tuesday with 84 patients in the hospital, 22 of which were in the ICU.

The demand for ICU beds is such that UVM is converting operating room space, postponing elective surgeries in order to set up five more ICU beds. Dartmouth has also stated they will pause or limit surgeries that weren’t immediately required in order to free up space for Covid patients.

Seropositivity (percent of test that are positive) has increased significantly from a low of 3.8% just before Thanksgiving to a record high of 5.2% yesterday. Vt now has had 51,134 cases of Covid, with yesterday setting a new daily record with 604 cases. There are currently 76 people in the hospital, 23 of whom are in the ICU.

OMICRON: The newly detected Omicron COVID-19 variant may be highly infectious and less responsive to available vaccines than other variants, but it is too early to know how it compares to the Delta variant, top infectious disease official Anthony S. Fauci, MD, said on Tuesday.

On Thursday, data from South Africa showed that Omicron was now the most dominant strain and is driving a sharp increase in new infections. Some 11,500 new Covid infections were registered in the latest daily figures, which is a sharp rise over the 8,500 cases confirmed the previous day. By contrast, daily infections were averaging between 200 and 300 in mid-November. People previously infected with other variants of coronavirus do not appear to be protected against Omicron but vaccines are still believed to protect against severe disease, according to top scientists from the global health body and South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

Though South Africa alerted the world to Omicron, it appeared earlier in The Netherlands, France and Japan. It is unclear when or where this new variant arose but it’s been in circulation for weeks now. The United States announced its first case on Wednesday and as of last night, the variant has been detected in five states, with five cases in New York. No cases have been found in Vermont.

In the next few weeks more will be known about this new variant, including how much protection the current vaccinations provide; if it is more transmissible than the Delta variant and what type of severity is associated with it.

Regardless of what the data ultimately shows, we have the ability to reduce its impact with vaccinations/boosters; wearing a mask indoors; handwashing & sanitizing; testing and staying home when sick.

NATIONAL PLAN: President Biden announced his latest strategies yesterday to try and bring Covid under control. The components includes: Mask mandates for airplanes, trains and public transportation; requiring private health insurance to cover 100% of at home tests; all in-bound international passengers must test for Covid within 24 hours of departure, regardless of vaccination status or nationality; and launching a media campaign to encourage booster shots.

NEWS/LIT REVIEW

• Vermont plans to increase rapid and at home Covid Testing options, but supply concerns persist.

 

3. EVENTS

NOVEMBER 28 (SUNDAY)-DECEMBER 6 (MONDAY): HAPPY HANUKKAH

DECEMBER 3 (FRIDAY): On snow volunteer registration for CTES Snow Sports program 4-7 pm at CTES. FMI: Jarrod Harper at 802-770-2892

DECEMBER 4 (SATURDAY): Stuff a Fire Truck Food Drive for Black River Good Neighbors Food Shelf. From 9-5 at Shaw’s Parking Lot. This is being sponsored by Proctorsville and Ludlow Fire Departments.

-       Cavendish Library Scholastic book fair and pirate party. 1-2 pm at the Library. Includes games, prizes and shopping.

-       The Cavendish Green Mountain Snow Fleas Snowmobile Club will be selling Holiday Gourmet Gift Baskets on Saturday, Dec. 4th from 9 am to 2 pm at Singleton’s. Priced at $50, the retail value of the baskets is $120.

-       Registration continues for Snow Sports Program Volunteers for CTES. 9-noon at CTES. FMI: Jarrod Harper at 802-770-2892

DECEMBER 12 (SUNDAY): Christmas Ghost Walk-Proctorsville. 7 pm, meet at the Proctorsville War Memorial. Free and open to the public. Donations welcomed.  FMI: 802-226-7807 or e-mail margocaulfield@icloud.com

DECEMBER 23 (THURSDAY)-JANUARY 2 (SUNDAY): Schools holiday break

DECEMBER 24 (FRIDAY): Christmas Eve Town Office Closed

DECEMBER 25 (SATURDAY): MERRY CHRISTMAS

DECEMBER 26 (SUNDAY)-DECEMBER 31 (SATURDAY): HAPPY KWANZA

DECEMBER 31 (FRIDAY) New Year’s Eve Town Office Closed

JANUARY 17 (MONDAY): Martin Luther King’s Day Town Officer Closed

CA❤︎ENDSH VAXXING & MASKING TO PROTECT SELF & OTHERS

    IF YOU READ THIS PLEASE HELP SUPPORT CAVENDISH CONNECTS