Few Flu Shot
Clinic Announced
by Amy Kolb Noyes
MORRISVILLE – Copley Hospital has announced a new
public flu vaccination clinic this week. The clinic, open to
adults 18 and older, will be held at Copley Hospital’s main
lobby Friday, November 11, from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.
Nurse Manager Linda Shaw noted, “November is prime time
for the administration of flu vaccine.” She added it takes
about two weeks for the shot to give protection against
influenza.
Up until this week, Shaw had been administering flu shots
from a partial shipment of 500 doses. She admitted she was
getting nervous, as she administered her 499th shot on
Friday, November 4. However, Shaw was relieved to receive
the balance of the vaccine she ordered for public and
private clinics on Monday, November 7.
While Lamoille Home Heath & Hospice has yet to receive any
flu vaccine shipments from its order, flu clinic organizer
Marge St. Cyr said she has managed to borrow a limited
amount of vaccine from other health organizations. LHH&H
will hold a clinic for high-risk patients only on Thursday,
November 10, from 10:30 a.m. until noon, at the Morrisville
VFW. St. Cyr said LHH&H will vaccinate high risk children
at the clinic only by special arrangement, as a pediatric
nurse will need to be brought in to administer the shot. LHH&H
will schedule additional clinics only after its vaccine
shipment has arrived.
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Geer Wins Again
by Amy Kolb Noyes
For the third year in a row, Judy Geer, of Morristown, has
rowed her way to a championship victory at the Head of the
Charles Regatta in Boston. As the folks back home were
getting their first snowstorm of the season, Geer was rowing
against the wind in a freezing cold rain. Because the
regatta course involves rowing both up and down the Charles
River, Geer and the other racers came into the home stretch
with the wind at their backs.
“That was a gift,” Geer said of the well-earned tail
wind.
Sunday, October 23, Geer bested the field in the Grand
Master Singles Women Race (50+), her third straight victory
in an event in which she holds the course record. Geer’s
winning 2005 time of 24:30 was 45 seconds faster than the
second place finisher. Geer, a former Olympian, is one of
four owners of Concept 2, a Morrisville-based company that
manufactures racing oars and indoor rowing machines.
While Geer’s profession ensures rowing is part of
her daily life year-round, she said she’s glad to have the
rowing season over with – now that the weather has turned.
“I’m happy to hang up the oars and boat and get ready for
cross-country ski season,” Geer told the News & Citizen.
Concept 2 founding owners, Dick and Peter
Dreissigacker, also competed in The Head of the Charles, the
largest two-day regatta in the world. The annual race up and
down the Charles River draws more than 7,000 athletes and
300,000 spectators. |
Flashing
Yellow Means Slow Down by Alicia Morissette
HYDE PARK – There are now two signs with flashing yellow
lights located on Route 15 as your vehicle approaches the
Lamoille Union High School, Middle School and Green Mountain
Technology and Career Center entrance.
Starting in early October 2004, Lamoille Union District
#18 was informed the Lamoille County Planning Commission
would be investigating the safety of the schools’ entrance.
According to Charleen McFarlane, of the Lamoille North
Supervisory Union’s superintendent’s office, some people
were confused as to when students were at the school.
After various letters were written and support was
gained from the Agency of Transportation (AOT), it was
determined that two lights would be set up for student
safety. AOT agreed to pay for half of the estimated total,
all-inclusive cost, of $5,100, as long as the three schools
paid for the other half, as well as utility costs.
Now, a little over a year after discussing the light option,
the lights are in place. LUMS teacher Marty Spaulding and
Lamoille County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Chris Watson
helped set up the lights that began flashing on Thursday,
November 3.
The speed limit through that short section of Route 15
will be 35 miles per hour when the lights are flashing.
Set on a timer, the lights will flash during the busiest
times for the schools: between 7:45 and 8:30 a.m., 1:20 and
1:45 p.m. and from 2:35 until 3:20 p.m. |
A Tough Job in the Big
Easy
by Amy Kolb Noyes
MORRISVILLE – Funeral Director Mark Faith was among the
Vermonters to put his daily life on hold and offer up his
expertise in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans. Mark spent two
weeks working with an international team in New Orleans, in
the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Mark got the call on Wednesday, September 28, from the
National Funeral Directors Association to be a part of a
team put together by Kenyon International Emergency
Services, out of Houston, TX. At 6:00 the next morning, he
was on a flight bound for Houston. While he knew there was a
chance he might be called upon, Mark did not expect such
immediacy once the call came.
Fortunately, Mark had other local funeral directors
ready to cover for him at home, if needed.
“That’s a nice thing about Vermont,” Mark commented,
“as a rural area, people are willing to help.”
From Houston, Mark and his group, which also included people
from Great Britain and Canada, travelled to their temporary
home – a military base in Slidell, LA. On a good day,
Slidell is about an hour’s drive from New Orleans, Mark
estimated. The trip took about twice as long in post-Katrina
traffic.
When asked about his accommodations Mark responded, “I’ve
never been in the military, but I think it’s kind of like
that.” He said his young daughters were impressed with the
fact he got to sleep in a bunk.
Mark’s group’s mission was to recover bodies, and
although professional confidentiality prevented him from
sharing specifics, he commented, “We had plenty to do while
we were there.”
Mark was struck by the varying degrees of damage from
neighborhood to neighborhood. He commented he remembers
working in one neighborhood with evidence of roof-level
water lines, where the next neighborhood over, people
appeared to be moving back into homes.
Mark had one day off during his two weeks in New
Orleans. On that day he visited the famous French Quarter,
only some of which was up and running. He said most of the
people there seemed to be emergency workers of one kind or
another.
“There was a lot of cleaning up going on,” Mark
commented. He added New Orleans changed a lot, for the
better, in just the two weeks he was there.
Mark returned home on Thursday, October 13. By that time the
New Orleans airport was up and running, so he flew home from
there. Although some of his team members stayed on for
another week, Mark had to get back to his family and his
business.
“It would have been difficult to stay longer,” said Mark. He
added, “Two weeks, when you have kids and a business, that’s
a long time to be gone.”
If called, however, Mark said he would go again to another
disaster area. He said he is thankful he had the flexibility
to be able to answer the call.
“You feel so helpless watching on T.V.,” said Mark, adding he
was glad to be able to do more, this time, than just write a
check. |
NEMS Groundbreaking
by Alicia Morissette
JOHNSON – Saturday, November 5, was a milestone for Northern
Emergency Medical Services (NEMS) located in Johnson,
because it marked the beginning of a permanent building!
On July 1, 2003, NEMS began as an offshoot of the
Newport Ambulance Service (NAS) and has been searching for a
place to call its own ever since. After renting the old
Vermont Electric Co-op (VEC) building on School Street in
Johnson, NEMS finally found its niche in Wayne Stearns’
field across from the Field Days fairgrounds on Wilson Road,
just off Route 15 in Johnson.
I n his groundbreaking speech, Michael Paradis,
executive director of NAS, mentioned Johnson Selectboard
member, Brad Reed, “has been instrumental in locating a site
for us. It is fair to say Brad now knows of all the lots for
sale in the Johnson area.”
After some chuckles, Paradis also praised Hyde Park
Selectman Scott Griswold for also being involved in the lot
search and putting in “many hours meeting and working on
different arrangements for the many sites.”
The new building will be constructed to help NEMS handle the
large volume of calls it has been receiving. Paradis said
this year alone, NEMS is expected to have responded to
approximately 1,200 calls in Lamoille County.
The new building is also expected to lower costs in the
long run for the county, said Griswold. He explained that by
paying for a building and lot they will eventually own, NEMS
service expenses will go down – because they will no longer
have to pay rent for the old VEC building. In other words
the space costs will be more stable.
Wayne Stearns was also thanked, because he worked
with NEMS and NAS to make the site affordable. Other people
in the community who have helped make the building possible
are: Bill Samal, Leslie White, Donald Lynch, Walt Earle,
Tracey Webster and Kevin Jones. These people were, or are
still, members of the Oversight Board.
The building will have three ambulance bays, three
office rooms, a classroom and living quarters for
volunteers.
Since NEMS currently serves Johnson, Hyde Park,
Waterville, Eden and Belvidere, the site relocation should
not be a problem. The other good news is that “Towns are not
paying for this,” said Griswold. All of the money being used
is from donations, since NEMS is a nonprofit company.
Anyone who gives money will have his or her name put on
a plaque in the new building, which will be permanent.
Griswold said the plaque was set up this way so even
children can give one dollar and be on the plaque. “This is
for the community,” said Griswold.
Donations can be sent to Newport Ambulance NEMS
Building Fund, P.O. Box 305, Johnson, VT, 05656. |
NEMS Helps Texans Struck
by Rita
by Alicia Morissette
JOHNSON – “People were so thankful,” said Diana LeClair,
Northern Emergency Medical Services (NEMS) volunteer, of her
recent trip to Texas to help victims of Hurricane Rita.
Diana was the last of the three NEMS volunteers who
took turns offering their medical expertise in various areas
of Texas. Michele LaFoe was the first to head to Texas on
September 22, then Pat Boyle arrived on October 4, and Diana
was there 11 days later.
When Michele volunteered to go, she had only 30 minutes to
pack a bag that would prepare her for a 12 day stint in
Texas. When she arrived, Michele said she performed long
distance transports and triaging out of a community church
in Jasper.
Most of the medical problems she encountered were heat
exhaustion, snake bites, people without their medications,
and people suffering from a lack of potable water and
electricity. What made the whole situation worse was that
the temperature was in the “high 90’s with a heat index of
110.”
Michele recounted a “lack of communication in the
beginning,” and everyone had noticed the extensive water and
wind damage. All three women encountered places where people
had been without water for several days and toilets wouldn’t
flush, which made for unhealthy and unsanitary conditions.
Pat said she spent her first five days of an 11 day
stay with two other ambulances in Liberty. During those five
days, she had only a “few hours” of sleep. She even slept in
a parking lot at times. Personal hygiene was also a complex
issue, because it was difficult to get a shower.
When Diana arrived, the need for help wasn’t as urgent
as when Michele and Pat were there, and she received 24
hours off after working 24 hours. However, she wasn’t fond
of the time off, because there were no recreational
activities to pursue in the wreckage.
In Woodville, Diana stayed at a health center, ran
transports in Jasper and helped get ambulance services going
in Newton. During that time, she said she distributed a lot
of food and ice, and said it was “quite an experience.”
When asked if they would do it again, Michele, Pat and
Diana all responded with a resounding “yes.” Michele
remarked on the “cameraderie” she experienced, Diana said
she was amply rewarded by peoples’ thanks, and Pat
remembered a piece of cardboard with a spray painted “Thank
You.”
However, for Michele, the thing that got her through
and made her want to volunteer her help again was a
statement from her 5 year old daughter. During a
conversation while Michele was in Texas, her daughter said,
“Mommy, I’m so proud of you.” |
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MW&L Reports on Storm
by Amy Kolb Noyes
MORRISVILLE – The late-October wet and heavy snowstorms
knocked power out to homes and businesses around Vermont,
leaving some in the dark more than a week later. Friday,
November 4, Governor Jim Douglas announced he has directed
the Vermont Departments of Public Service and Emergency
Management to look into the causes and response to the
outages. According to the governor’s office, approximately
70,000 people were left without power for a number of days.
Governor Douglas called the outages “a serious hardship
to our residents and businesses, especially in the more
rural areas of the state,” and added, “we need to understand
why this happened and what might be done to reduce the
length of future outages.”
Morrisville Water & Light Superintendent Scott Corse
said his department had a “hard 24 hours” after the storm,
after which he said the system was in pretty good shape.
Corse said the heavy, wet snow was such a burden because the
leaves were still on the trees.
Vermont Public Service Commissioner David O’Brien expressed
a similar sentiment saying, “This wasn’t a typical Vermont
snowstorm. The fact that many leaves were still on the trees
and the snow was very heavy caused an extraordinary number
of downed trees in areas that would not have been hit so
hard in midwinter. The result was many small outages that
had to be restored one by one, placing tremendous burden on
utility crews in the field.”
The governor expressed gratitude to utility workers who
helped get the state back on-line.
“I want to thank the utility crews that worked hard to
overcome some serious challenges,” Governor Douglas stated.
“They were out restoring service to Vermonters, often
through all hours of the night, and we should be grateful
for their efforts.”
In other power news, Corse noted Vermont Yankee is
currently down for refueling. To compensate, MW&L is
“running Green River heavily” to make up for the glut in
available energy.
Corse commented of Vermont Yankee’s refueling outage,
“When they go down we lose one of our least expensive
sources of power.”
Meanwhile, MW&L is wrapping up its construction
season projects. The Washington Highway water and sewer line
replacement project is now in the paving and clean-up
phase. Corse noted the crew poured new sidewalks and began
patching pavement on Friday, November 4. He explained the
town plans to repave Washington Highway next year.
“This approach is consistent with our goal of
scheduling water and sewer work, to the maximum extent
possible, such that the road gets one year to ‘settle’ and
then receives a finish course of pavement,” Corse stated.
Ultimately, Corse said MW&L will replace the water and
sewer line down Maple Street. However, MW&L is still without
an agreement with the town on that project. Therefore, Corse
said, Maple Street will likely be put off another year, and
be completed during 2007. Corse said, during 2006, MW&L
plans to complete infrastructure projects on Wilkins Street
and Wabun Avenue.
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