GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
You knew it couldn't last. There's an "impressive" cold front headed our way today, due to reach us this afternoon. There could be some thunder as it passes through, though it's more likely farther south. The day may actually start out partly sunny, but it's going to cloud over quickly, chance of rain starting in the late morning, definitely rain and gusty winds by 1, slight chance of thunder somewhere in there. It all ends, supposedly, by evening. High today around 50, then things turn sharply colder. Into the 20s tonight.You've heard them, you've probably seen them, and there's never a bad time to look at them: Geese over the Connecticut, that is. John Nolan was at Wilson's Landing in Hanover over the weekend and caught this rebel trio hell-bent-for-leather southward. Maybe they were curious about the Ledyard Bridge graffiti, he speculates. Thanks, John!
So... where do we stand?
NH is up to 1,447 reported cases, a jump of 55. Meanwhile, 521 have recovered (no change) and 42 have died (up one), bringing the total current caseload to 884. Grafton County is at 45 cases while Sullivan is at 10 (no change for either); Merrimack County is now at 96 (up 2).
VT reported only 4 new cases yesterday, bringing the total to 816. Of those, 24 are hospitalized (down 3), with 38 deaths (unchanged). Windsor and Sullivan counties are at 37 and 5 officially reported cases, unchanged from yesterday.
At a press conference yesterday, reporters pressed state officials on why MA, CT, and NH can do so (to be sure, NH only gives a range, not exact figures) but VT can't. Health Commissioner Mark Levine said that given small numbers, it might be possible to identify a patient within a town. He added, “I would think that any Vermonter, no matter what town they live in, would be foolish to think there was not a case in their town.” Human Services secretary Mike Smith promised to “look into it and see what we can come up with.”
There are lots of symptom trackers, but the one with the most potential participants launched yesterday: FB teamed up with Carnegie-Mellon's Delphi Research Center, which is using the platform to survey users for potential Covid symptoms. The idea is to help governments and health officials predict where the virus might hit next. FB's got its own county-by county map, at the link. For the moment, it shows Windsor County as an emerging problem spot.
Dartmouth shifts "sophomore summer" online, Hop dark through August, country club closed. In an email to the college community yesterday, Provost Joe Helble wrote: "[A]fter several weeks of careful consideration, we have concluded that the facts are not in our favor. Students come to our campus from all over the country and the world, many from areas where the number of cases continues to increase." Given shortages of PPE and testing, he said, even a limited summer term "would pose a significant public health risk." Helble also announced that on-campus residential summer programs have been canceled, the Hopkins Center will continue to do its programming online, and the Hanover Country Club will be closed and membership dues refunded. You might... might... be able to get your chocolates curbside soon. My Brigadeiro, the Hanover chocolatier that's been down below street-level for the past six years, is going ahead with its plans to move into the corner of the old Dartmouth Bookstore, next to Still North Books. Owner Ana Paula Alexandrescu tells The Dartmouth she hopes to open by mid-May, though the pandemic makes a firm opening date impossible to set. Woodstock Area Relief Fund gets off to a strong start. After just a week in business, it's raised more than $150,000 in donations, has 76 applications for funds, and has given out more than $35,000 to Woodstock-area families for help with basic household needs. Assistance packages of up to $1,000 are available immediately for food, medical needs, and shelter. Donate or apply at the link.UV Business Alliance launches new promotion to support local businesses. The idea: You order takeout or buy from a local store or service, take a pic and post it to the Business Alliance's Instagram tagging the business where you made your purchase. That gets you a chance at one of four $50 giftcards being given away each week to the restaurant, shop or service of your choice. The promotion's being sponsored by BioXCell and the VN.SPONSORED: Remember climate change? While we struggle with coronavirus, there’s that even larger existential threat to contend with. Luckily for humankind, there are also wonderful people like William Kamkwamba, Dartmouth class of 2014. As a 13-year-old, he built a DIY wind turbine to save his Malawian village from famine—a hero’s journey dramatized in the 2019 film The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. Watch the film on Netflix and tune in tonight at 8 pm for a live-chat discussion with William and other Dartmouth environmentalists in the latest episode of Hop@Home’s #SmallScreenFun.Here's a question for you... A reader writes, "I received my $1200 CARES money last week and have been quite frustrated trying to find reliable places in the UV to donate it... It seems strange to me that there is no coordinated effort to make these entities known and to make donating to them easy. UV Strong takes online donations via the Haven website, but does not provide details on where the money goes. I want to know where my CARES money goes and I want it to go where it will have some real effect in diminishing the suffering that is only going to grow a lot worse in the coming months. Any ideas?" Is anyone working on a central portal where potential donors can see which organizations are doing what with the money they receive? Let us know.Gov v. Legislature spending authority argued in NH court. For two hours in Hillsborough Superior Court yesterday, lawyers tangled over whether Gov. Chris Sununu's emergency authority allows him to bypass the spending authority given to state legislators by the state constitution. At issue is who gets to decide how some $1.25 billion in federal relief aid will get spent in the state. InDepthNH has the play-by-play.Closing VTC in Randolph would hit local economy. The VN's Nora Doyle-Burr talked yesterday to area manufacturers, who are not happy about state colleges Chancellor Jeb Spaulding's proposal to close the college's Randolph campus. “Without a reliable talent pool—that is in large part generated by Vermont Tech—we may be forced to consider other areas outside of Vermont in which to grow our business,” GW Plastics CEO Brenan Riehl said yesterday. LEDdynamics, the new KAD Models satellite facility—they all rely on VTC grads.One-time injection of funds won't fix VT state colleges, Scott says. The VT guv warned yesterday that plenty of state institutions will need emergency funding in coming months, and that the state college system faces a "long-term problem" that giving money to three colleges facing closure won't address. He added, though, that he would rather keep Vermont Tech's Randolph campus open, and close the Williston campus. "I'm of the mindset that we should be focusing on what we can do to help the rural parts of the state," he said, "because Chittenden County is doing OK right now."The reality, Spaulding says, is that the state system could run out of funds by the end of summer. “The reason for making this recommendation is because the entire system is at risk,” he told a meeting yesterday. “Without decisive action or with inaction, we jeopardize all of the pieces.” The system needs $25 million immediately, he said, and would need that much every year in order to sustain the three campuses he's proposed closing.
You can see spring unfolding right there. Yesterday was a perfect day for flying, and William Daugherty got his drone out over Blow-Me-Down Brook in Plainfield. That is definitely green grass along the banks...That's a big mama...bear. And her frisky cubs. Over in Bristol, VT yesterday, up close and personal on a guy's trail cam.Hartford Selectboard will consider letter asking feds if new "welcoming ordinance" makes town ineligible for grants. Town manager Brannon Godfrey notes that Hartford "is not currently in compliance for a $27,800 USDA grant to help replace the Bugbee Senior Center roof," the VN's Anna Merriman writes. Other grants may be at risk as well, so town attorney Robert Manby has drafted a letter seeking clarification. The SB will take up whether to approve it at its meeting today.NASA and NOAA tap UNH. They've chosen the university's Space Science Center to design and build a specialized magnetometer to improve space weather monitoring and forecasting capabilities—specifically, to measure how the earth's magnetic field is affected by storms generated by the solar wind. This, in turn, has implications for the electric grid, GPS, and satellite-based communications. Last week we got red. Now it's blue's turn. "Blue has always spoken to something beyond ourselves: it is a colour that draws us into the void, the infinite sky," says British science writer Philip Ball in the second of his three essays on specific colors. He starts with the blue-glazed soapstone carvings known as faience, which were produced in Mesopotamia as long ago as 4500 BC. From there he moves on to Egyptian blue, indigo, and the lapis lazuli that Marco Polo found in what is now Afghanistan in 1271, which produced (after laborious work) ultramarine.
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"Pocket Songs," the effort by the Upper Valley Music Center's Patricia Norton to get some short, satisfying songs in people's "pockets," is gaining steam. About 200 people of all singing skill levels have signed up—and not just from the Upper Valley, but from as far away as British Columbia and Ireland. It meets Tuesday mornings from 10 to 11, and Sundays from 4-5 pm. It's only scheduled for five more weeks, so this sounds like a good time to join. This week's songs include "Let the Way Be Open", "Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog", a song by Hanover's Clyde Watson, and a guest artist from Roanoke, NC, Joy Truskowski, teaching "I'm So Grateful."
The 50th anniversary of Earth Day is tomorrow, and Randolph is Randolph hosting a community pop–up exhibit in celebration. You can submit artwork online until 5 pm today, about Earth Day, community resilience, art in a time of social isolation for the common good... Physical art will go up in front of the Chandler tomorrow through the weekend; online art will be, well, online. Or you can just put it in front of your house for all to see.
Time to get ready for this week's version of Northern Stage's "Play Date." These days, more than 175 people are participating: You read a play, then on Friday evening you see parts of it performed and talk about it, often with the playwright and artistic directors from elsewhere. This week it's Blues for an Alabama Sky by Pearl Cleage, about a Cotton Club singer in Depression-era Harlem. It's hosted by Susan Booth and Tinashe Kajese-Bolden of Atlanta's Alliance Theatre, and will feature Cleage herself.
Or hey, today may not be a day to head outside, but tomorrow will be, and now may just be the time to become a backyard birder. Outside/In, the fantastic series about the natural world produced by NHPR, is up with "A Beginner's Guide to Backyard Birding." "All you need," says host Sam Evans-Brown, "is your ears and/or eyeballs, a notebook, and maybe a couple of cardboard toilet paper tubes." Surely you've got some. Listen to the full thing at the link.
I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,but because it never forgot what it did.
— From "Famous," by Naomi Shihab Nye
Stay dry! See you tomorrow.
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