Cavendish Update 4/15/22: Road Work/SB Mtg/Internet
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The Cavendish Town Office is closed today for Good Friday. The Cavendish Transfer Station is closed this Sunday for Easter.
4/15/22
1. Road Construction 131
2. Cavendish Select board Mtg 4/11
3. Telecommunications
4. Cavendish Info
5. Covid update
6. Events
1. ROAD CONSTRUCTION 131: Starting Monday, April 18, route 131, from the intersection of 106 (Downers) to the VT/NH border will be resurfaced along with associated approaches. This project goes all summer and into the fall. Be prepared for alternating traffic and delays. For issues and concerns contact brandon.kipp@vermont.gov or 802-224-6110. Project Fact Sheet
2. CAVENDISH SELECTBOARD 4/11: The meeting can be watched at the Okemo Valley TV website. Minutes will be available at the municipal website and the Vermont Journal has filed a report on this meeting.
Discussed/Action Taken
• Annual organizational meeting: No substantial changes from the previous year.
• Town Plan’s Draft “Energy Chapter” Discussed
• Update on roads: Coming out of a particularly challenging mud season, a lot of stone has been added to various back roads. Grating and ditching are now getting underway. A number of culverts, including old metal ones, need to be replaced this summer.
• Wednesday Night Summer Concerts: Approved. Concerts start Wed. July 6 and run through Aug. 10 at Svec Park (Proctorsville Green) at 6pm.
• Reviewed Town Meeting. Will consider a hybrid format for town meeting moving forward, recognizing that voting cannot be done in this manner. There was a low turnout of voters, which was attributed in part to the lack of issues on the agenda.
• Speed on 131 in Cavendish Village and in front of the school. Have a new deputy sheriff, who has been asked to monitor these areas. A speed study is being slated for 131 that should be completed by the end of the month.
• ARPA Funding Committee: The town manager would like to put together an American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Committee which would oversee the disbursement of these funds. Currently the town has received $225,000 with an additional $225,500 due shortly. Funds must be spent by 2024. The committee will include no more than two SB members along with interested community members. Anyone interested in serving on this committee, or having an idea of how to spend the money, should contact Brendan McNamara at the town office 802-226-7291 as soon as possible.
• Junkyard Ordinance: The issue is going to be enforcement. In the meantime Brendan is working with the property owners identified places of concern, most of whom are beginning to work at cleaning up their properties.
3. TELECOMMUNICATIONS: At Monday’s Select Board meeting, the board had questions about any actions taken on Internet as a follow up to the March meeting where this was discussed at length.
TDS: According to TDS’s Joel Dohmeier’d April 8 report, regarding the wiring of Cavendish TDS catchment area with fiber, I have checked internally and this project is in engineering. Cavendish and Proctorsville are a part of a larger build beyond these two areas as well. Construction will begin this year on this larger project and the good news is that this will largely be an aerial build (vs. burying the fiber), which allows work to go through the winter months as well. TDS will most likely apply for the slightly more than half a million dollars that has been set aside by the state to wire Cavendish with fiber in order to reach the most underserved of the TDS catchment area. TDS covers 87% of Cavendish.
Unserved areas of town: Primarily in the northeast section of town, there is no reliable service for about 21 addresses. As a stop gap measure, it is being suggested that Starlink be considered by residents in poorly served areas. This is the high speed, low latency broadband Internet using advanced satellites in a low orbit spear headed by Elon Musk.
Comcast: With 78% of the town covered by Comcast, including a large part of the northeast section of town, the question is how to expand their service to reach those under/un served. Because VT will only pay for fiber, and has specifically excluded both Comcast and Spectrum (the cable arm of Consolidated Communications) from receiving state funds, other sources of funds are needed.
Lines have been extended by Comcast in Cavendish in the following manner: homeowner lives within a range that they can “bump out” from a nearby property that has Comcast; homeowner pays for the line extension; and a grant was secured to expand service into the northeast part of town. Comcast wires on their own dime if they have 16 subscribers within a mile.
According to the VT Dept. of Public Service’s Cable Line Extension Rule The cable rule requires the costs of service buildout to be apportioned such that as the density (number of homes passed per mile) of subscribers increases the company bears a greater share of the cost, up to 100%. This can be a great opportunity to engage your neighbors in discussions and organize them to participate, subscribe to cable and lower the costs of service buildout for everyone. This means the more subscribers you can have in a given area, the lower the buildout cost will be to the individual subscriber.
4. CAVENDISH INFO
• Warning of the Annual Meeting for Fire District 2: The legal voters of Cavendish Fire District #2 are warned of the annual meeting at the Cavendish Volunteer Fire Department station on Tuesday May 17th at 7 pm
• April 6 Cavendish Planning Commission: The meeting can be watched at the Okemo Valley TV website
• GMUSD board chair asserts ownership of buses at TRSU Board Meeting
• DHMC Name Change: As part of a ‘rebranding effort,” Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center has dropped the Hitchcock and will be known as Dartmouth Health.
5. COVID UPDATE: For local information on testing, vaccinations, boosters, notifying contacts as well as other resources, including for Long Covid, please see the Cavendish COVID-19 Resource Guide.
TRSU SCHOOL NUMBERS: The state stopped reporting cases by school as of January 10, 2022. From August 2021 through Jan. 10, 2022, 58 cases were reported among the TRSU schools as follows: Cavendish Town Elementary School (CTES ) 5 cases; Green Mountain Union High School (GMUHS) 26 cases; Chester Andover (CAES) Elementary School 16 cases; Ludlow Elementary School 8 cases and Mt. Holly Elementary 3 cases.
Since January 4, 2022 the Two Rivers Supervisory Union (TRSU) has been providing daily counts of Covid cases by school at their website. From Jan. 4-April 13 there have been 211 cases in total. The school with the most cases has been Chester Andover Elementary (95 cases) followed by Green Mountain Union High School 73 cases; Mount Holly Elementary 17 cases and with Cavendish and Ludlow Elementary Schools having 13 cases a piece.
January, by far, had the highest case counts. From April 1-13, there have been 11 new cases in the district- 7 cases at Chester Elementary; 1 each at Ludlow and Mt. Holly elementary schools and 2 at CTES.
Between the two data sets, covering the 2021/2022 school year, there have been an estimate of at least 269 cases in the TRSU. It should be noted that a number of cases occurred over the December break, and most likely the Feb. break, which would not appear in either data set.
STATE NUMBERS: Tuesday’s Modeling report shows a continuing rise in cases. Reported cases in Vermont this week increased from a daily average of 152 to 196 (+29%). The state reported 370 more cases this week than last. Burlington wastewater testing shows an overall increased presence of the virus. New England cases increased from 2,812 to 3,286 cases per day (+17%) in the last week as BA.2 continues to spread.. The BA.2 Omicron subvariant .. is making up more than 90% of sequenced cases in the region. Hospitalization admissions, inpatient census, and ICU numbers have increased this week….The number of booster doses administered in Vermont increased again this week, climbing to 1,664 doses over the last seven days. Vermont continues to rank first in doses administered per capita and first in percentage of fully vaccinated individuals with a booster dose.
While there has been an increase for all age categories in the last seven days, it’s the highest (51%) for those 25 to 49, followed by those 50-64 (41%). For the youngest population 0-24, there has been a 26% increase with the slowest growth rate occurring in those 65+ (24%).
Springfield Rivers Nursing & Rehab is having an active outbreak, with 66 cases reported as of Tuesday. There have been cluster outbreaks in a school in Northern VT and the Williston Public Safety Answering Point (one of the two police call centers).
Yesterday 4/14/22, 327 new cases were reported with 35 in the hospital (7 ICU). There have been no new deaths reported since April 8.
WHO/HHS Continues Public Health Emergency: Covid continues to remain a major public health threat. "This virus has over time become more transmissible and it remains deadly especially for the unprotected and unvaccinated that don't have access to health care and antivirals," said World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
On Tuesday, US Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the extension of the nation's own, separate public health emergency declaration for COVID-19 for 90 days. This allows for federal funding to be used for tests, vaccines, and certain treatments for people covered by Medicare and Medicaid health insurance programs. Private insurers must cover all costs associated with COVID tests and vaccines. This changes once the health declaration is lifted in the U.S.
On Wednesday, the Biden administration extended the nationwide face mask requirement. This requires that travelers in airports, planes, buses, trains and at transit hubs mask until at least May 3.
6. EVENTS
APRIL 15 (FRIDAY): Happy Passover. Town Office closed for Good Friday
APRIL 16 (SATURDAY): Cavendish Egg Hunt 10 am Greven Field
- Easter Jazz Concert at St James United Methodist Church Main St Proctorsville at 6PM.
- 10:30 AM at Hoisington Field in Perkinsville. Bring your own basket. Special prizes will be available. Special area for infants -3 year olds. This event will take place regardless of the weather. Sponsored by the Weathersfield Proctor Library
- Town Wide Easter Egg Hunt Ludlow from 11-2 at Fox Run Golf Course
APRIL 17 (SUNDAY): HAPPY EASTER Cavendish Transfer Station Closed
APRIL 18 (MONDAY): TAXES DUE
APRIL 30 (SATURDAY): Got Drugs? Drug Take Back Day. Turn in expired and unused drugs from 10-2. Needles not accepted. No questions asked. Sites include Springfield, Weathersfield, Windsor and Ludlow Police Depts. Weathersfield Transfer Station The Ludlow Pharmacy and Ludlow Police Dept provide drop boxes for year round disposal.
MAY 2 (MONDAY): Grant applications for the Cavendish Community Fund are due. FMI: Douglas McBride at 226-7142 or Peter LaBelle at 226-7250.
MAY 7 (SATURDAY): Green Up Day
MAY 15 (SUNDAY): Town Taxes due
MAY 17 (TUESDAY): Fire District 2 (Cavendish Village) annual meeting, 7 pm at the Cavendish Fire Department.
MAY 30 (MONDAY): Memorial Day. Legal holiday. Town Office Closed
JUNE 1 (WEDNESDAY): CCCA’s Cavendish Calendar Photography Contest photographs are due today. FMI: cavendishcommunityconservation@gmail.com.
JULY 30 (SATURDAY): Cavendish’s Annual Town Wide Tag Sale, 9-2.
