Mountain Times - Volume 49, Number 43- Oct. 21-27, 2020

18 • CALENDAR
The Mountain Times • Oct. 21-27, 2020
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Calendar:
from page 17
Line Dance: Country
9:30 a.m.
Marilyn Sheldon holds dance classes at the Godnick Adult Center.
Advance registration required, call 802-773-1853. Come for a fun cardiovascular
workout with both new and old-line dances. No experience
necessary. No partner needed. 1 Deer St. in Rutland. $5
Jim Yeager and Friends
5 p.m.
Performing live at The Public House, 5813 Woodstock Rd in Quechee.
Sammy B
5:30 p.m.
Performing live at Flannels Bar & Grill in Mendon.
Circle of Parents in Recovery
5:30 p.m.
Virtual. Contact Cindy Atkins, Family Support Programs Coordinator, at
802-498-0608 or catkins@pcavt.org
Pickleball Fall Season
6 p.m.
Located at the Maxfield Outdoor Sports Complex in Hartford. They
have equipment on-site that can be loaned out if you need it. Ages
16+. Purchase a pass for the entire season or drop-in anytime for
a $2/visit. hartfordvt.myrec.com/info/activities/program_details.
aspx?ProgramID=30089
Did we miss a local event?
Email djdavehoff@gmail.com and we’ll be sure to
include your next musical event on this page!
If you have another event coming up, email
events@mountaintimes.info.
Road construction report for the week of Oct. 19
Here is a list of road construction projects happening
throughout central Vermont. Please remember to drive
safely in all work zones. Lives depend on it.
I-91 Hartland – Motorists will see lane reductions
Northbound and Southbound, with reduced speeds enforced
in the work zone for bridge replacement operations.
Bethel – The bridge along VT 12 is open to traffic. Travelers
should expect one-way alternating traffic for guardrail
installation. Minor delays
Bristol – Paving operations will finish this week along
VT 116, and project clean-up activities will begin. Expect
minor delays in the vicinity of paving operations.
Cavendish – Weathersfield – A roadway project along
VT 131 continues. Motorists will encounter multiple areas
of one-way alternating traffic. Minor delays should be
expected.
Fair Haven – Rutland – Guardrail work this week on US
4 from the NY State line to Exit 5 at US 7 south of Rutland.
One-lane traffic will be maintained in each direction.
Hartford – Crews continue drainage and box cutting
work along US 5 and Sykes Mountain Ave as part of the
Hartford Roundabout and Sidewalk project. Minor traffic
interruptions are expected on Beswick Dr. and Ralph
Lehman Dr.
Pittsford – Multiple activities for roadway reconstruction
along US 7 this week. Lane shifts and new traffic
patterns are now in effect. Motorists should proceed with
caution as they navigate new traffic patterns and lane shifts
throughout the project. Expect intermittent stoppages of
traffic throughout the week, with minor delays. A speed
reduction to 35 mph remains in effect.
Windsor – Hartland – A paving project continues along
US 5. Travelers should anticipate areas of alternating oneway
traffic with some delays.
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SCOTUS: GOP Nominee will unbalance court
from page 12
plus Americans with
preexisting conditions
by drastically increasing
their premiums or denying
coverage altogether.
And the number of
Americans with preexisting
conditions will only
grow as many Covid-19
survivors suffer serious
ongoing health issues.
Don’t count on Trump
or the GOP to replace the
ACA with a better health
care bill. No new set of
protections will magically
appear if he manages to
win.
Nor would the loss
of the ACA be the only
bad news flowing from
her appointment to the
court. The ideological
bias of Barrett, who
worked for the GOP in
the Bush v. Gore debacle
and whose father was an
attorney for Shell Oil, far
outweighs her judicial
credentials. Her extremist
views and corporate
ties are a danger to American
democracy and the
civil liberties of everyone.
Her writings and associations
foretell any number
of catastrophic court
decisions.
She even declined to
acknowledge climate
change as scientific fact.
Barrett’s immediate
value to Trump also
goes beyond the ACA.
She would not commit
to recusing herself from
an election challenge by
Trump, nor so much as
confirm that a president
who decisively loses
The ideological bias of Barrett... far
outweighs her judicial credentials.
reelection must leave the
White House peacefully,
as required by law.
With an entrenched
majority of hard line
conservatives stacking
the court, Barrett’s appointment
represents the
tragic corruption of our
most trusted institution,
in service to special interests.
Our future depends
on electing a Democratic
president and
Congressional majority
to counterbalance such
a dangerous bias and
restore representation for
the people.
Robin Vaughan
Kolderie
Hoosick, New York
Sick days: Children sent home with minor ailments causes challenges
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from page 1
she’s supposed to stay clear of inperson
work if she has even mild
symptoms.
“I mean — I get it, I completely
get it. But it just makes it hard, especially
with 3-year-olds who have
allergies, and colds, and teething
and meltdowns,” she said.
In Essex, Growing With Wonder
child care center director Dawn Irwin
said she and her staff decided a strict
ban on runny noses was untenable.
So, in consultation with staff from the
Department of Health, Irwin said her
center came up with a way to triage
mucus. A clear runny nose that needs
to be wiped only five times or fewer in
half an hour can stay. The rest go.
“If it’s discolored, or like really
goopy, that’s the kind of runny nose
that we just say, ‘Nope, you can’t be
here today’,” Irwin said.
Sierra Metcalf, a teacher at the Seed
Sprout Bloom center in Berlin, said
child care workers dread making the
call to parents, who are more often
frustrated than understanding.
‘Some parents cry … some are rude’
“Some parents cry because they
get so stressed out because they just
got back to work,” Metcalf said. “Some
of them are really rude about it. Like,
‘this is ridiculous, these are runny
noses.’ It puts a strain on us, because
we feel horrible about it.”
The center also lets snot-nosed
children stay so long as the mucus is
clear and does not run freely. But too
many still get sent home, Metcalf said,
and state officials have been thus far
unwilling to offer further leniency.
Employees tell parents they have little
say in the matter, she said, and encourage
them to call the state directly
to register their complaints.
Jay Nichols, executive director of
the Vermont Principals’ Association,
said he’s increasingly hearing about
this from schools and parents.
“If you’re only going to school a
couple of days a week, for example,
and you miss one of those days
because you have a little bit runny
nose, you’ll find that it’s really very
unfortunate. The problem is with
this disease — it’s really hard to tell.
So we’re gonna err on the side of
safety,” he said.
Vermont is not alone in wrestling
with this problem. In Canada,
British Columbia has gone so far as
to remove cold symptoms entirely
from its student health checklist,
and Ontario just relaxed its own
screening protocols.
Vermont needs to watch the real-world
impacts of its guidelines,
said Ben Lee, an associate professor
of pediatrics at the University of
Vermont and pediatric infectious
disease specialist at UVM’s Children’s
Hospital.
But for now, Lee said he favors a
more cautious approach, and said
the current guidelines have the added
benefit of lessening the transmission
of other illnesses that usually spread
rampantly in school and child care
settings.
“Having a flu outbreak in a school
or having an outbreak of another
respiratory virus could, in the era of
Covid … place enormous burdens on
schools and families and providers as
well,” he said.
Vigilance is crucial now
The Vermont Health Department
does not anticipate removing runny
noses from its symptom list, according
to agency spokesperson Ben Truman.
But it is working on providing
“additional guidance on when runny
noses should/should not be excluded
from school,” he said, which should
be released around mid-October.
Truman said the current guidance
allows for students with no fever and
allergy symptoms that cause coughing
and clear runny nose to attend
in-person, if they have medically
diagnosed allergies and follow treatment
plans.
Sophia Hall, president of the Vermont
State School Nurses Association,
said she’d rather not see screening
protocols relaxed. If the state has
escaped the worst of the pandemic,
she said, it’s because it’s been vigilant
about mitigation measures.
She agrees a clear runny nose is
less concerning than one that’s discolored
and congested, and particularly
one that’s accompanied by other
symptoms. But she said she’d still
send a kid home and then do some
fact-finding to assess how quickly
they could come back to class.
“I have had parents tell me, ‘It’s
just a cold, it’s just allergies.’ You
know, all you can do is try to try to
help them understand that this is a
pandemic, and we have to do things
differently,” she said.