Mountain Times - Volume 49, Number 14: April 1-7, 2020

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4 • The Mountain Times • April 1-7, 2020 Town of Killington 2706 River Road Killington, Vermont 05701 802-422-3243 www.killingtontown.com NOTICE FROM THE SELECTBOARD RE: COVID-19 - REVISED March 16, 2020 The Town of Killington Selectboard is monitoring the development of the COVID-19 outbreak. In response, Killington is reviewing information from the Vermont Department of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Vermont Emergency Management (VEM). Effective March 20, 2020 at 3:00pm, the Town of Killington will limit activities and meetings at the Town Office to essential municipal operations only. Public Access will be limited to the hours of 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm daily (BY APPOINTMENT ONLY). Employees will be working remotely whenever possible. As a result, the best way to reach staff will be via email. You can find all contact information on the website. We will be monitoring voicemail regularly and ask for patience as we will get back to you as soon as possible. Most Town records are available electronically or can be emailed to you. All visitors will be required to wash hands and limit contact with surfaces. The Selectboard, Planning Commission, Recreation Commission, and Zoning Board of Adjustment will postpone meetings for the rest of the month of March and resume meetings in April as required. We are planning to make future meetings accessible electronically, when applicable, and will provide log-in information prior to each meeting. Non-essential Town activities, events, and meetings will not be allowed until further notice. If you have symptoms of COVID-19 i.e. fever, cough and/or difficulty breathing, please DO NOT come into the Town Office. If you need assistance check our website at killingtontown.com or if you are unable to find what you need please contact the Town Office at 802-422-3243 or lucrecia@killingtontown.com to assist in transacting your town business. Dog licenses are due before April 1, 2020. Consider obtaining your license by mail instead of coming into the Town Office. Rabies certificates can be emailed by your veterinarian to lucrecia@killingtontown.com of faxed to 802-422-3030. Please monitor the town’s website www.killingtontown.com for the most up to date information regarding the operations of municipal government and events. For the most up to date information about COVID-19 go to the State of Vermont Department of Health websitewww.healthvermont. gov/covid19 or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention websitewww.cdc.gov/covid19 If you cannot find the answers to your questions on these websites, contact 211 or www.vermont211.org EVERYDAY PREVENTIVE MEASURES Person-to-person spread of the virus is thought to occur mainly via respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Much is still unknown about how the virus spreads. Take these everyday preventive actions to help stop the spread of germs: • Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. • Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands. • Avoid close contact with people who are sick. • Stay home when you are sick. • Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash. • Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces. Police visit hotels to assess compliance with “Stay Home, Stay Safe” executive order By Polly Mikula After promoting a “Stay to Stay” pro gram for the last two years and creating other incentives to get people to come to Vermont and relocate, Governor Phil Scott issued an executive order — and then an amendment strengthening that order —calling for visitors to, essentially, not visit. The Department of Tourism underscored the fact that the only lodging rooms that should be rented out right now are those for people working on the front lines of fighting the COVID-19 epidemic. This directive includes private rentals as well as licensed lodging establish ments. “No new arrivals or reservations for immediate extension of stay are permit ted after 5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 25 through April 15,” it stated. Many hotels and other lodging establishments had already shut down, preemptively. “We closed the Woodstock Inn in mid-March and are not planning on opening until May 1,” said Courtney Lowe, the marketing director for the prestigious inn that was once a Rockefeller property. Vermont State Police and other lawenforcement agencies were tasked with visiting hotels, bnbs and motels to assess compli ance with the order. Law enforcement visited roughly 295 lodging establishments on Saturday, March 28, and then the remaining 20 sites on Sunday, March 29. The purpose of the visits was to evaluate compliance. Of the more than 300 hotels, motels and BnBs, 88 were found to be open, and 41 were non-compliant. There were eight in Rutland and Wind sor counties that received letters of non-compliance. They include: • Highlander Motel, Rutland • Travel Inn, Rutland • Rodeway Inn Rutland (North Main Street), Rutland • Rodeway Inn Rutland (Woodstock Avenue), Rutland • Quality Inn Rutland, Rutland • Weathervane Motel, Manchester • Econo Lodge Manchester, Manchester Center • Holiday Inn Express, Springfield However, for many Airbnb hosts and smaller establishments, the order came as a surprise and compliance is tougher to enforce. “I wasn’t really aware of this,” said one Stowe property owner who asked not to be identified. “We got an inquiry from a couple from New York wanting to rent for two months. It’s come at a time when we needed the money as our business is closed and the people who clean ours and other rental properties really need the income now too — this is their only way to make money.” The New York couple had booked, paid and had planned to spend the months of April and May in Stowe. “Once we heard about the executive order, we had to ask them to cancel and refund their money,” the homeowner said. On March 31, Airbnb send out a notice to all hosts supporting them with cancelations, but not requiring them to do so. “When a guest cancels an accommodation reservation due to a COVID-19 related circumstance, with a check-in between March 14 and May 31, we will pay you 25% of what you would normally receive through your cancellation policy. This applies retroactively to all COVID-19 related Fines of up to $10,000 and jail time of up to six months could be imposed on violators. cancellations during this period. This cost will be covered entirely by Airbnb.” The state, however, will be able to see who is in violation of the order retroactively, based on tax returns that Airbnb or homeowners are required to send directly to them. It is unclear at this point if or how the state will hold these violators accountable. But the directive is clear: visitors from anywhere — inside or outside the state — are being asked to return home. The governor’s order directs everyone to stay at home, leaving only for essen tial reasons, critical to health and safety. At a press conference Monday, March 30, Attorney General TJ Donovan noted that if necessary, fines of up to $10,000 and jail time of up to six months could be im posed on violators who allow bookings during this order. The ban does not require Vermont police to actively stop either Vemonters or those entering Vermont from a “hot-spot” state. Gov. Scott stressed that strenuous efforts to keep out-of-staters out of Vermont should not be pursued with an “us against them” mentality, say ing: “We’re all in this together.” Lisa Lynn contributed to this report and a portion of this story was published March 26, 2020, at vtskiandride.com. Submitted All lodging establishments including short-term rentals have been ordered to close.
The Mountain Times • April 1-7, 2020 • 5 Vermont jobless claims spike, surpassing record highs By Art Woolf The Vermont state labor department received 14,784 claims for unemployment for the week ending March 21. The huge spike in claims came in the wake of coronavirus-related layoffs. Michael Harrington, interim commissioner, told lawmakers Thursday, March 26, that the total number of claims — processed and unprocessed — is an all-time record. In fact, the number of people applying for unemployment insurance is three times higher than the previous record. Officially, the number of Vermonters who lost their jobs and applied for unemployment insurance was 3,667, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But that number is not the full picture, said Department of Labor Commissioner Michael Harrington. He explained that the department’s Unemployment Insurance Claims Center was still processing as many as 11,000 additional online claims when that number was reported. “The numbers we publish today are preliminary numbers,” Harrington said. “That’s only counting the people who could get through and get into the system.” There have been only three weeks where applications exceeded those number, and they happened when retail employees were laid off at the end of the holiday shopping season. To put last week’s applications in perspective, during the week ending March 14, applications totaled 659, less than the weekly average of the past 35 years. At the peak of the Great Recession in 2008-2009 there were only two weeks when just over 2,000 Vermonters applied for unemployment insurance. Vermont is not alone in seeing the steepest rise on record. Nationally, 3.3 million people applied for unemployment insurance. The previous week’s number was 282,000. That increase breaks all records. Vermont’s increase, as reported by Harrington, was 22 times higher than last week’s claim rate. Nationally, the increase was 11.5 times greater. However, many states like California and New York were swamped like Vermont and have not reported the actual number of claims. Next week, the numbers will likely swell. The week ending March 21 was just the beginning of large numbers of layoffs. When this week’s number is Travel order: Further restrictions in place to keep Vermonters safe > from page 1 tions are outlined in Addendum 7, which can be read in full at governor. vermont.gov. “We all must do our part to slow the spread of COVID-19 to minimize infections — particularly for those who are elderly or have underlying chronic health conditions — and prevent it from overwhelming our healthcare facilities,” said Governor Scott. “I understand there will be some who need to travel from other states to return to a home in Vermont or support a vulnerable family member. But we need anyone entering Vermont to abide by this 14-day self-isolation directive, and then follow Vermont’s “Stay Home, Stay Safe” order while here. We must work together to slow the spread of this virus.” The governor’s order also provides additional guidance to lodging providers to ensure compliance with the order, which suspended lodging operations. The order makes clear that lodging facilities – which includes hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, inns, short term rentals (e.g. VRBO, Homeaway, Airbnb, etc.), and all public and private camping facilities and RV parks – are to be closed except for stated exemptions when supporting the state’s COVID-19 response. Additionally, the governor has suspended online lodging reservations. Under this order, the Vermont State Police and local law enforcement will monitor lodging providers for compliance and work with the Attorney General’s Office on additional compliance measures if needed. Addendum 7 provides lodging operations with additional details on requirements, and state agencies will also be reaching out to these tabulated and released on Thursday, we’ll see thousands more people applying for unemployment insurance and that high number may continue for a third week. The number of new applications is likely to be higher for several reasons. First, more workers were laid off this week due to Governor Scott’s announcement of additional emergency closures. Second, the Vermont Department of Labor has been swamped with electronic applications for unemployment insurance, as has every other state. They are still working through last week’s backlog and that will no doubt continue through this week and possibly next. There are some bright spots—or maybe some lessdark spots. Many of the laid off workers are eligible for state Claims > 7 Courtesy of Vermont Department of Labor Unemployment claims have skyrocketed as COVID-19 takes hold. The Department of Labor officially reported 3,700 processed insurance claims for the week ending March 21, but the total number of claims was far higher —14,800. businesses directly. “These are incredibly difficult times, but the more closely we can follow all of the CDC and Health Department guidance, the more effectively we can slow the spread and save lives,” said Governor Scott. “I know we’re asking a lot of business owners, workers, school employees, parents, students and all Vermonters. But your sacrifice is not for nothing. If we do this now, we can slow the spread of this deadly virus and keep many of our neighbors and loved ones alive and healthy.” The “Stay Home, Stay Safe” order and Monday’s updated travel and lodging order are in effect until April 15, 2020, though may be extended or shortened as needed. For the latest information and guidance relating to Vermont’s COVID-19 response, visit healthvermont.gov/covid19. Table of contents Local News ................................................................ 2 State News ................................................................. 6 Opinion ..................................................................... 8 News Briefs ............................................................. 14 Puzzles..................................................................... 15 Silver Linings .......................................................... 16 Food Matters ........................................................... 18 Ski Shop Showcase ................................................. 20 Pets .......................................................................... 22 Mother of the Skye .................................................. 23 Columns .................................................................. 24 Rockin’ the Region .................................................. 26 Service Directory .................................................... 28 Classifieds ............................................................... 30 Real Estate ............................................................... 31 MOU NTA I N TI M E S is a community newspaper covering Central Vermont that aims to engage and inform as well as empower community members to have a voice. Polly Lynn-Mikula ............................. Editor & Co-Publisher Jason Mikula ......................... Sales Manager & Co-Publisher Lindsey Rogers ..................................... Sales Representative Krista Johnston ...........................................Graphic Designer Brooke Geery ....................................... Front Office Manager Katy Savage Julia Purdy Curt Peterson Cal Garrison Buy Sell Trade MID-STATE GUNS LLC Dom Cioffi Mary Ellen Shaw Paul Holmes Merisa Sherman Flag photo by Richard Podlesney 976 VT Rt. 12S Randolph, VT 05060 midstateguns@myfairpoint.net ©The Mountain Times 2020 The Mountain Times • P.O. Box 183 Killington, VT 05751 • (802) 422-2399 Email: editor@mountaintimes.info mountaintimes.info Ray & Carol Burke Tel 802.728.3100 Fax 802.728.4300 Dave Hoffenberg Ed Larson Vivian Finck Nate Lucas
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Mountain Times - Volume 49, Number 14: April 1-7, 2020

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