Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

REXBURG Madison County recently remodeled the former Payless Shoe Store to make room for a consolidated drivers license and vehicle registration office. The new facility is located at 510 N. 2nd E. Suite 1.

Its one stop shopping, quipped Madison County Sheriffs Public Information Officer Isaac Payne. It makes it more convenient.

Payne said that the former Payless fits perfectly into the countys plans for its offices.

It looks great. It has a nice lobby and a workstation for all of our employees. I dont think you will recognize it as the old building anymore, he said.

According to Madison County Assessor Shawn Boice, the county will pay around $2,700 a month or $32,000 a year to lease the building. It also helps that the former Payless has lots of parking spaces, he said.

Its a good deal because its below market rent, Boice said.

Boice has heard people ask why the county commissioners just didnt build a new office instead of leasing the Payless building. Doing so would have cost a chunk of change, he said.

Common sense tells me a lease payment is more effective for us to get into a building than to come up with millions of dollars, he said. It will be well over 20 years before (rent) hits $1 million.

Boice said workers started remodeling the building earlier this year at a cost of around $135,000.

The remodeling of the buildings exterior has been completed and all thats left to install are computers and fingerprint machines, Payne said.

Its been this last month that theyve been finishing up the inside construction, he said.

The commissioners had frequently heard residents complain about having to walk from one building to another to get their drivers license renewed and vehicles registered . It wasnt unusual to hear requests to consolidate the two offices, Payne said.

The county commissioners, county offices, and the sheriffs office came together and made it happen, he said.

Boice says that on a daily basis, people come into the vehicle registration office looking to get their drivers licenses renewed.

We send people across the street multiple times a day. Its more convenient to combine them (offices), he said.

The two offices have suffered from growing pains, Payne said.

The old drivers license office is in the same boat we are. We have outgrown our buildings. We dont have enough space as it is. This will give us a little bit of breathing room. We can expand out a little bit, he said.

Payne said the county had been in discussions about expanding for about a year, and says that county workers are looking forward to the move.

Im really excited about it. I know a lot of our employees are excited about it. They can better do their jobs. It will more easily help the community out, he said.

Its expected that the drivers license and vehicle registration offices will be open in the new building by June or July. For more information call 208-359-6200.

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Drivers license, vehicle registration offices moving to new building - Rexburg Standard Journal

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The kitchen often gets more use than any other room of the home. Its the place where people go to eat, cook, gather, study, work, and entertain. So, it makes sense to have a kitchen that is as well lit as possible.But artificial light cant compete with natural light in terms of clarity or color or cheerfulness, for that matter. And by maximizing the natural light within a space, you can also help reduce the amount of energy that you may use.

If your kitchen seems dark, and youre looking for ways to brighten it that wont drive up your energy usage, these kitchen updates can help.

Not all types of glass are the same and not all types are reflective. But there are several kinds of glass tile backsplashes that can help reflect and boost the natural light thats already in your kitchen.

There are two kinds to look for:

Glass for a backsplash will cost between $20 to $30 a square foot, with most backsplashes requiring around 30 square feet for $1,200 to $1,500.

If you want something that will increase the amount of light in the kitchen and make it seem larger at the same time, consider a mirror backsplash. Mirrors are excellent at amplifying the amount of natural light in a space, so covering your backsplash with a mirror will definitely brighten things up.

Mirrored backsplashes can be one continuous mirror or they can be made up of mirrored tiles. Either will create a unique look for your kitchen while it helps make the room brighter. Although the mirror can make the room seem larger, it will also reflect the items on your countertops. So this option works best if you store small appliances and other items out of sight.

Mirrored backsplashes cost between $8 and $15 a square foot for a total of $240 to $450 for a 30 square-foot area.

Glass is a very reflective material, so installing as much of it as possible in your kitchen can help you boost the amount of natural light. If you have paneled cabinet doors, its fairly easy to replace the inner panel with glass. Its also possible to replace the entire cabinet door with a glass front.

If you dont want whats inside your cabinets to be on display, you can opt for wavy or obscured glass instead of clear. The idea is to use a reflective material, though, so the result wont be as brightening with matte or frosted glass.

A replacement cabinet door with glass inserts costs between $20 and $50 on average, depending on wood type and style.

When youre looking for ways to reflect and boost natural light, dont overlook the power of paint. Using a satin gloss paint on your walls and a high gloss paint on trim and cabinets can go a long way toward brightening up the whole kitchen.

Make sure that you choose lighter colors for the best effect. And while high gloss and semi-gloss are more reflective, they tend to be a little overpowering if used everywhere, so stay with a satin finish on the walls and keep the higher reflection for woodwork.

Painting your kitchen has a cost of around $400 to $800; painters typically charge around $50 per hour.

Adding windows in an existing home isnt always a feasible option, especially if all youre trying to do is boost your natural light and not completely transform your homes exterior too. But installing a solar tube is a good alternative. This is a tube you run from your roof to your kitchen that will literally pull in the sunlight. Its not going to give you a view to the outdoors, but it wont change the appearance of your home and it wont require you to cut into siding either.

Solar tubes cost around $500 to $1,000 depending on size and distance.

If your kitchen is too dark and you find yourself using artificial light during the day to make it usable, consider investing in any of these ideas to help maximize your natural light. Any single one can help make a difference on its own, or you can layer them for greater effect. Boost your natural light and start reducing your energy consumption today.

Cristina Miguelez is a remodeling specialist at Fixr.com, a website that connects consumers with service professionals in their area and estimates the cost for remodeling projects. She writes about home improvement tips and tricks to help homeowners make better home remodeling decisions.

Feature image byAndr Franois McKenzie on Unsplash

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5 Clever Ways To Maximize Natural Light in Your Kitchen - Earth911.com

When I was a kid, my brother and I had a game wed play after school: How quickly can you guess which Brady Bunch episode youre watching? One tip-off was the music: If the kids ran into the house to a tune with an upbeat tempo, (do-do-dooo-do, do-do-do-dooo-do), it was likely a fun-filled episode featuring a celebrity guest star or perhaps a road trip in a camper. If one of the kids strolled into the house with their head dragging, Charlie Brown-style, with the incidental music playing at a slower pace (wah-wah-waaaaah-wah, wah wah wah waaahhh-wah), it was probably going to be more of a downer episode, about an unrequited crush or not making a team.

The clues didnt really matter: We usually guessed the correct episode in 10 seconds or so. We knew them all. We were the target demographic for The Brady Bunch in syndication, settling down with it every weekday for a full hour, lying on the scratchy loden front-room carpet with our chins in our hands. There were other shows we loved: The Partridge Family had the advantage in the musical department, and we raced through dinner to watch Happy Days every Tuesday night. But none captivated us like The Brady Bunch, which has maintained a similar hold on pop culture for decades, never leaving for long. As recently as late 2019, the now-AARP-eligible Brady kids were still reuniting for new onscreen adventures. This time, it was under the roof of the split-level ranch that they never actually shared as a family, though their TV characters didif you ignored the fact that its groovy mid-20th-century interiors were actually located on a soundstage. There they were, 50 years later, renovating that Studio City house to resemble those Paramount Studios sets, with the help of some extremely 21st-century celebrities: the onscreen personalities of HGTV. The Bradys were blurring the lines between real life and fantasyand not for the first time.

In a half-century, The Brady Bunch has evolved from sitcom to cartoon to variety show to drama to parody to reality series, molding and re-molding itself to fit the prevailing styles, tastes, and sensibilities of multiple eras. It all began in the late 1960s, when Gilligans Island producer Sherwood Schwartz wanted to capitalize on the different types of families that were following in the wake of a relatively new wave of no-fault divorce, the sort seen in big-screen comedies like Yours, Mine, And Ours and With Six You Get Eggroll. This was the zeitgeist that produced Schwartzs famously blended Bradys, even if their show never mentioned the d word: a widower with three sons marrying a widowor is she a divorce?with three daughters

The story of a lovely lady (Florence Henderson) bringing up three very lovely girls (Maureen McCormick, Eve Plumb, and Susan Olsen) and forming a family with a man named Brady (Robert Reed), who was busy with three boys of his own (Barry Williams, Christopher Knight, and Mike Lookinland), wasnt much of a hit in its original broadcast run. The Brady Bunch aired on ABC for five seasons, beginning in 1969, yet never cracked the Nielsen Top 30. But other factors helped sustain the Bradys longevity. Previous sitcoms like Family Affair and The Courtship Of Eddies Father also had school-aged characters, but this one was primarily focused on the kids viewpoints, not the parents. The younger Bradys had the adults greatly outnumbered, leading to a plethora of plots involving sibling rivalry, school, dating, and other topics that their peers watching at home could relate to.

And unlike previous generations of adorable TV moppets, the Brady kids fought. A lot. Marcia and Greg ran against each other in the race for student body president; quintessential middle child Jan nursed a long-standing envy of her big sister. The fact that a sitcom-perfect family like the Bradys had their squabbles, and always stuck together at the end, was a valuable lesson for those of us who quarreled constantly with our siblings. The years separating the Brady kids also made for an easy transition for the young viewer: Start out watching at Bobby or Cindys age and you might idolize the older brothers and sisters, only to wind up relating more to Greg and Marcia as you grew older and returned to the show in syndication.

Those reruns were another component of the Bradys enduring popularity, often packaged in a local stations after-school Brady Bunch Hour. It was easy to get caught up on all 117 episodes, and then rewatch them, while the look and layout of the Brady house imprinted itself on your brain: the wood paneling in the TV room, the toilet-free kids bathroom, the bizarre horse sculpture under the open staircase. And from that level of familiarity springs the third pillar of Brady immortality, unique to this franchise: As ubiquitous reruns fueled the series popularity, its characters proved flexible enough to fit an assortment of TV and film formats.

Schwartz was only too happy to revisit his creation, whether the request came from an animation studio (for Filmations weak Archie knockoff, The Brady Kids) or psychedelic Saturday-morning kingpins Sid and Marty Krofft (for the retina-searing train wreck The Brady Bunch Variety Hour). TV reunion movies The Brady Girls Get Married (1981)and A Very Brady Christmas (1988) each led to spin-offs, but neither the odd-couple comedy The Brady Brides (1981) nor the hour-long drama The Bradys (1990) lasted longer than a season. The kids whod tracked their own growth from Kitty Karry-all to Marcia, Marcia, Marcia to crushes on Davy Jones were given a whole new set of Brady yardsticks to measure their own lives againstthough none ever achieved the staying power of the original Brady Bunch.

Despite that lack of success, whenever all nine original cast memberslets not forget Ann B. Davis as live-in housekeeper Alicegot the chance to work together again, they signed up, give or take the occasional ripe-for-lampooning holdout. The Bradys familial bond had transferred to the actors who played them, and they kept bringing other people together, too. When the typically hackneyed A Very Brady Christmas debuted in 1988, my then-twentysomething friends and I devoured it eagerly, howling over plot points like architect dad Mike finding his way out of a collapsed construction site thanks to the sound of his family singing O Come, All Ye Faithful.

Rather than adopt an ill-fitting seriousnessMarcias an alcoholic! Bobbys auto-racing career ends in a wreck! Greg grows a mustache!to get with the changing times, the Bradys would only survive the 90s by being who theyd always been: a vision of the American family as corny, inauthentic, and tied to the 1970s as their AstroTurf backyard. So it was with The Real Live Brady Bunch, the stage show created by Jill and Faith Soloway that debuted at Chicagos Annoyance Theater in 1990, which draped the likes of Jane Lynch and Andy Richter in polyester for faithful reenactments of vintage Brady scriptsunderlining their schmaltz and phoniness in the process. The Brady Bunch Movie (1995) took a similar, affectionately snarky approach, depicting the Bradys as an out-of-touch family that hadnt changed at all since their eponymous TV show had ended, sitcom-earnest fish swimming through ironic 90s waters of grunge, Guess jeans, and car jackings. The film opened at the top of the weekend box office; A Very Brady Sequel brought a very Brady Hawaiian getaway to theaters the next summer.

The satirical message was clear: The Bradys idyllic existence was an unattainable facsimile of real life, an example even its stars couldnt live up to. Barry Williams autobiography, Growing Up Brady: I Was A Teenage Greg,provided the flip side to the stage and screen spoofs funhouse mirror. Williams scandalized fans by revealing that he once went on an innocent date with his TV mom, Florence Henderson; that he had showed up on set stoned; and that all three of the Brady kids male-female sibling pairings had harbored some level of romantic interest for the other. In Maureen McCormicks own book, Heres The Story: Surviving Marcia Brady And Finding My True Voice, she writes candidly about her eating disorder and a cocaine addiction that she says harmed her career irreparably.

The illusion of the original series shattered like moms favorite vase in the path of a rogue basketball, with the next generation of Brady projects eschewing laugh tracks and third-act resolutions for something grounded in realityor a heightened form of it, anyway. This was more than future primetime stars Kaley Cuoco and Adam Brody playing versions of Williams and McCormick who cant stop making out with each other while in character in the 2000 NBC adaptation of Growing Up Brady. This was Americas Next Top Model winner Adrianne Curry living out countless fans daydreams by romancing Peter Brady while she and Christopher Knight were on The Surreal Life. In grand Brady tradition, their onscreen courtship led to a wedding and a three-season spin-off on VH1, but My Fair Brady and a few respectable runs on Dancing With The Stars were merely reality-TV dress rehearsals for last years A Very Brady Renovation, in which McCormick, Knight, Williams, Plumb, Olsen, and Lookinland reunited to transform the Brady house into the Brady house.

In the years since The Brady Bunch ended, the residence at 11222 Dilling Street in Studio City, Californiarecognizable even without the words created by Sherwood Schwartz executive producer superimposed over ithad become a popular tourist destination. When the longtime owners decided to sell, they found plenty of prospective buyersincluding ex-N Sync member Lance Bassin the market for a piece of TV history. But they were all outbid by HGTV, whose producers paired the surviving Brady cast members with some of the channels top home-improvement personalities who, more often than not, were family themselves: Property Brothers Drew and Jonathan Scott, or Karen Laine and Mina Starsiak, the mother and daughter team of Good Bones. Meanwhile, various pairings of the original six Brady kids (no Geri Reischl substitutions, no cousin Oliver additions) assist, picking up Cindys favorite doll from Sherwood Schwartzs daughter, or helping to identify the proper dining room set at a resale shop. After all, no one could be expected to know the Brady place as well as the six actors who basically lived in it for five years.

The experience is obviously emotional for the Brady cast, especially since its their first series en masse (reunion specials aside) since the deaths of their TV parents: Reed in 1992, and Henderson two decades later. (Ann B. Davis died in 2014.) The effect the Bradys have on the renovators is also compelling. No matter what generation they belong to, all the HGTV hosts bring their own memories to the job, and are committed to realizing them within these four walls. They feel the gravity of the task ahead of them, joking that America will be so mad at us! if the house isnt exactly right.

The Brady Bunch is far from the best or even most memorable series to air on the small screen. But its hard to imagine another TV setting that the average viewer is able to visualize so clearly, down to the clown painting in the boys room and the floral wallpaper in the girls. And as a lifelong Brady viewer, I found it fascinating to see the artifice of the most familiar house in TV history brought to life, as the Brady actors and the HGTV crew tracked down the oversized amber glass grapes for the coffee table, and the long-outdated avocado-colored kitchen appliances. The cast is as thrilled as the renovators that theres finally a visible commode in the kids bathroom, and devoted viewers contribute their own knicknacks to the decor.

In the series finale, the cast and their guests wander through the finished Brady home. Doesnt this make you feel like youre 12? Williams asks rhetorically, while McCormick hugs a familiar stuffed animal in the girls room. Susan Olsen proudly takes pictures of her own kids on the iconic staircase. Florence Hendersons daughter Barbara remarks as she spies the parents spot-on master bedroom, Its such a strange experience. You sort of go back in time, and have something that wasnt real, become real.

Itd be a fitting capper for the relationship The Brady Bunch has had with its viewers: turning an actual house into a fictional home is not unlike trying to create the perfect fake family and bring it to life. Over the decades, the actors have forged their own clanan imperfect one, because the perfect family doesnt exist. But if the Brady Bunch legacy concludes with A Very Brady Renovation, its the right note to end on. The cast banded together to memorialize the place where they spent so much of their childhoodand where we spent so much of ours as well.

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Theyll never finish remodeling The Brady Bunch - The A.V. Club

Finally for those who have never activated the video camera in the calls on Zoom, to hide hair with regrowth or of unmanageable length, and for those who have done it alone in this period, to maintain the basic routine ( or depilation, manicure & Co), the time has come to abandon yourself to the expert hands of hairdressers, barbers and beauticians. The reopenings are close and will slowly start again from 18 May onwards.

Inail-Iss have just made known the recommendations that must be adopted on the premises.

The document, as explained on the website of the Ministry of Health , it is divided into two parts. The first is dedicated to a context analysis of the hairdressing services sector and other aesthetic treatments, while the second contains the hypotheses of system, organizational, prevention and protection measures as well as simple rules for the containment of contagion.

Here they are summarized: -Aesthetic treatments can be carried out in c closed abine . Prohibited sauna, turkish bath and whirlpool tub . The rooms must be sanitized every day. The activities must take place exclusively on reservation during which the type of treatment required in order to optimize waiting times. Areas for the technical waiting phases must be provided , such as laying of color and separation barriers in particular for washing areas. It is also necessary to provide a minimum distance of at least 2 meters using alternate workstations and sanitize the rooms every day. The use of masks is mandatory both by the staff and by the customer starting from entering the room. During the beauty treatments the cabin panels must be closed . All equipment must be disinfected with hydroalcoholic or chlorine-based detergents. It is essential to ensure the shift between workers and their training on the use of Personal Protective Equipment. For the care of the beard and face are recommended surgical masks also visors or face shields. As regards the premises, it is recommended to keep the doors open and eliminate the heating and cooling recirculation systems.

These, therefore, are the first indications to be followed in view of the reopening of the personal care services which are reported in greater detail in the document Hypothesis of remodeling of the measures containing the contagion from SARS -CoV-2 in the personal care sector: hairdressing and other beauty treatments approved on 12 May 2020 by the Technical Scientific Committee, established at the Civil Protection and published on the website of the Ministry of Health .

The appeal of the salons for the early reopening of 18 May

Phase 2 starts again: what will come to the salons after the coronavirus

The salons have reopened in Denmark. And how will you go to the hairdresser in Italy?

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The rules for going to the hairdresser and beautician - NJ MMA News

RICHMOND, Va. -- Free N-95 masks will be distributed to several Richmond communities and available for pickup for the general public this week thanks to a donation made by local business owners and community members.

Councilman Michael Jones in partnership with Charles Willis with United Communities Against Crime and Jong Lim, owner of Beaut-i-full beauty supply store at 5528 Hull Street Road is coordinating the donation and distribution of 10,000 N95 masks.

On Thursday, Mary 14, 2020, masks will be given to the management offices at Blue Ridge Estates, Chesterfield Square, Chippenham Place, and Norcroft Townhomes apartment complexes, as well as to Miles Jones Elementary School and G. H. Reid Elementary School for volunteers and families who are receiving meals.

Masks will also be given to residents of the Worsham Mobile Home Park next week as part of an information drive to spread awareness about available resources to Richmonds immigrant community.

Additionally, anyone who needs a mask can pick one up at Precious Blessings Academy located at 4823 Bryce Lane on Saturday, May 16, starting at 1:00 p.m, as well as at Beaut-i-full at 5528 Hull Street Road on Thursday, May 14, 2020 starting at 11 a.m.

Both mask distribution efforts are first come first serve and until supplies last.

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How to pick up a free N-95 mask in Richmond this week - wtvr.com

As part of ongoing efforts to address health disparities among vulnerable communities and populations, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has made a significant contribution to a COVID-19 mobile testing program conducted by Wayne State University, the Wayne State University Physician Group and ACCESS. Blue Cross support will expand the program to include free testing for older adults and their caregivers.

The partnership officially launched today, with a one-day mobile testing site at Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church in Detroit, providing up to 400 free COVID-19 swab tests to neighborhood residents. The church is located in the East Warren/Cadieux neighborhood, which Blue Cross is investing $5 million in through 2022, a pledge that will help inclusive neighborhood development through Detroits Strategic Neighborhood Fund and Affordable Housing Leverage Fund.

The funding from Blue Cross will cover testing supplies and operations costs for mobile units to test for COVID-19 at nursing homes, care facilities, churches and other sites throughout Detroit and the region.

Expanding testing is a critical step to help our seniors and their caregivers stay safe and healthy. Bringing the mobile clinic to those in need, who otherwise may have barriers to receive the test, provides an extremely important health care delivery platform to some of our most vulnerable residents, said Daniel J. Loepp, president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Blue Cross is proud to help these innovative partner organizations expand their vital work on the front lines in communities. Were grateful for their leadership and are honored to stand alongside them in this fight against COVID-19.

COVID-19 has hit nursing homes particularly hard in Michigan, jeopardizing the lives of one of the nations most vulnerable populations. According to the states disease surveillance system, 35 percent of Wayne County COVID-19 deaths occurred among nursing home residents. The city of Detroit has confirmed COVID-19 cases in all of its nursing homes.

Nursing home residents and their caregivers are among the most vulnerable populations in our battle to fight this virus, said M. Roy Wilson, president of Wayne State University. We need to do all we can to expand and expedite testing in these environments, with a goal to reduce and eventually eliminate the threat to these populations. Were grateful to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan for recognizing this crucial need for additional testing and moving quickly to meet it.

The mobile testing initiative was launched April 13 with vehicles, drivers and equipment donated by Ford Motor Co. to test symptomatic first responders, health care workers and corrections officers in Michigan.

Testing is free and does not require a prescription from a physician. Each vehicle is capable of testing as many as 100 people a day, with results returned within 24 to 36 hours.

Agencies interested in hosting a mobile testing unit for a day can call 313-269-1952 or email Mseredynski@accesscommunity.org.

With the effects of COVID-19 still unfolding every day, Wayne State University is taking proactive steps to limit its impact. Wayne State has established the Warrior Relief and Response campaign to provide increased support to critical programs and services. Gifts in support of COVID-19 mobile testing will help increase access to much needed screening and testing within metropolitan Detroit communities. To make a gift, please visit: warriorfunder.wayne.edu/covidtesting.

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Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan expands efforts to address health disparities by supporting WSU, Wayne State Physician Group and ACCESS's mobile...

The Melodores student a cappella group didnt let restrictions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic keep them from sharing their music with fans. Their performances, recorded using videoconferencing technology, have been viewed more than 775,000 times and have been featured on Good Morning America, ABC News and NBC News.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to upend lives in countless ways, members of the Vanderbilt community have shown remarkable resilience in the face of the crisis. Some are on the front lines, using their expertise to combat the spread of the disease and bringing comfort to its victims, while others are making the most of the constraints of social distancing to continue the universitys mission of education and discovery. And a few even have found opportunities to inject some much-needed humor into the situation.

Here we highlight several members of the Vanderbilt community who have stepped up to meet the unprecedented challenges posed by these uncertain times.

One of the most pressing challenges for hospitals nationwide amid the COVID-19 outbreak is a dwindling number of ventilators. But an interdisciplinary team of Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center faculty has devised a novel solution to help boost supply: a fabricated, open-source ventilator design.

Led on the university side by Kevin Galloway, research assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and Robert Webster, Richard A. Schroeder Professor of Mechanical Engineering, the team is currently on version two of the ventilator prototype and soon hopes to move into the final prototype phase before manufacturing.

Maker communities around the globe are stepping up to address the pressing medical challenges presented by COVID-19, says Galloway, who is also director of making at the Wondry at the Innovation Pavilion. In conversation with Bob Webster and colleagues at the Medical Center, we discussed how we can leverage our expertise to tackle this one issue that resonated most strongly for us.

After an initial conversation with Dr. Duke Herrell, professor of urology, biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering, about the threat posed by a lack of respiratory support equipment, Webster reached out to Galloway. Galloway already had been toying with an open-source ventilator design in his home garage that would address a key difficulty in making a ventilator: replicating the precise force of the hand involved in squeezing a manual bag.

In the first prototype, Galloway wrapped nylon webbing around a bag valve mask, or Ambu bag, and attached it to the crank arm of a windshield wiper motor to apply the repetitive squeezing force. While the design worked, the team needed to be able to control the amount of squeeze more precisely.

Inspired by a mechanism known as a Scotch yokewhich converts linear motion into a circular motion, and vice versaGalloway built his second (and latest) prototype in under three hours using the same motor, drawer glides and plywoodmaterials and tools that could be found almost anywhere in the world. Meanwhile, Webster and his colleagues added sensors and controls to the design to improve the safety and tune the in-and-out ratio to match normal breathing.

This was the result of a lot of conversations with doctors in which it became clear that a pressure sensor with an alarm on it for too-high or too-low pressure was essential to the design, notes Webster, who is also a professor of neurological surgery and electrical engineering, as well as an associate professor of medicine, otolaryngology and urology. This is something we would not have known without having many Vanderbilt physicians involved in the project.

The team is gathering feedback from ongoing ventilator tests with VUMC doctors to incorporate into a third version, which they believe will be extremely close to a design that the doctors would feel comfortable using on a patient in an emergency.

The long-term goal: Make the design publicly available so that anyone can replicate it, says Galloway.

SPENCER TURNEY

Watch the ventilator design in action:

On a Wednesday night in April, when first-year residents of Gillette House on The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons would normally share a sweet treat and catch up at their traditional Gillette Gelato event, they still connectedbut this time the room was virtual.

It was clear that they all simply missed one another, says Frank Dobson, associate dean of The Ingram Commons and faculty head of Gillette House. These bonds have been forged since Move-In Day and strengthened on the halls, with faculty dinners, gatherings and more. It was simply wonderful to laugh together again.

Students, resident advisers and faculty heads of house, across all of Vanderbilts residential colleges, created virtual spaces as the year concluded to share highs and lows of transitioning to online learning and to simply hang out.

I was so impressed by the residents resilience and calm during this strange time, says Sarah Igo, faculty head of E. Bronson Ingram College. It was wonderful during our virtual Bronson Breaks to confirm that students were OK and managing in creative ways in our new circumstances.

This pause in normal life seemed to be reminding all of us how important our families, friends and communities are, adds Igo, who is also the Andrew Jackson Professor of History and director of American Studies.

Although official house activities were suspended, some residential colleges continued online versions of their traditions. At Memorial House students shared in online SMemorials as faculty head of house Dan Morgan, principal senior lecturer of Earth and environmental sciences, and his family made smores outdoors. The students in East House joined Zoom bake-alongs with faculty head Elizabeth Meadows, MA06, PhD10, senior lecturer in English. And Stambaugh House faculty head Rosevelt Noble, BS97, PhD03, senior lecturer in sociology and director of the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center, continued his weekly group workout sessions online.

This quarantine situation could have happened 20 years ago, and we wouldnt have had the benefit of virtual chatrooms, so Im definitely grateful for the tools we have right now in this age of technology, first-year student Lamar Morgan said in April. I miss my people, and I want to see them any way I can.

Another aspect of the pandemic that residents and faculty heads of house recognized was the historical implications of this crisis. Its a topic that Igo and her residents discussed a lot.

I kept telling students that this is one of the very few times in their lives that they will really feel they are living through history, says Igo, who also has affiliate appointments in law, political science, sociology and communication of science and technology. We are part of something that is much larger than any of us and in which, nevertheless, our particular behaviors are critical.

I hoped we would come out of this appreciative of our fundamental interdependence and better prepared to nurture it.

Dobson says while it was no substitute for being physically together, these new ways of connecting helped support Vanderbilts efforts to nurture relationships and build community. We were all in this together whether on campus or not, he says. And since Vanderbilt is the students home away from home, the bonds were sustaining for all of us.

AMY WOLF

During the COVID-19 outbreak, the Vanderbilt Campus Dining team has worked around the clock to feed the students, residential faculty and support staff who, out of necessity, remain on campus by operating two dining locationsthe Rand Hall and Martha Rivers Ingram Commons dining centers.

As part of its preparations, Campus Dining coordinated with key suppliers to ensure there was enough foodplus backupto get through the pandemic. Campus Dining staff members also adopted CDC-recommended protocols, such as minimizing contact with food, enhancing cleaning procedures, and helping ensure safe meal service to all dining patrons. Some of those changes include switching completely to to-go orders, eliminating self-serve options, and creating tailored menus so patrons could be served quickly.

Vanderbilt Campus Dining was able to move quickly to implement plans that we had discussed, practiced and planned for in advance. The team has really come together to make this happen, says David ter Kuile, Campus Dinings executive director for business services.

In addition to operating the two core dining facilities, Campus Dining partnered with the Office of the Dean of Students to develop and implement an SMS text message-based ordering system for students in quarantine and self-isolation. Students confined to their residence-hall rooms can text a unique code and order from a menu of options for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Meals are prepared by Campus Dining chefs and then delivered to student rooms.

KATHERINE KEITH

When the first cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed in Tennessee, Natalie Robbins, a staff researcher with the Vanderbilt Initiative for Interdisciplinary Geospatial Research (VIIGR), was curious to see where the cases were across the stateand how they would spread.

I was able to find maps that reported how many cases there were per state, such as Johns Hopkins global coronavirus map, but there was nothing out there showing county-level data, says Robbins, who develops informatics techniques to analyze spatial data and environmental phenomena. I knew it would be helpful for Tennesseans to see where the cases were relative to where they lived, so after a few days, I decided I would just build that map myself.

The Tennessee COVID-19 map Robbins developed not only shows where the positive cases are across the statedrawn from the Tennessee Department of Healthbut also provides the latest information on negative test results, as well as test results for non-Tennessee residents diagnosed here. In addition, the map provides metrics for each county that policymakers may find relevant to their public health efforts, including the number of families with children, percent elderly, percent eligible for federal nutrition assistance, percent uninsured, percent insured by Medicare and more.

Steven Wernke, Joe B. Wyatt Distinguished University Professor, associate professor of anthropology, and director of VIIGR and Vanderbilts Spatial Analysis Research Laboratory (SARL), collaborated with Robbins on the maps development. Our hope here is not only that the public will be able to refer to this to stay informed, but that policymakers will use this information to identify areas of the state that may need extra support, he says.

Inspired by Robbins efforts, anthropology Ph.D. student Gabriela Or, MA17who normally spends her days as an archaeologist studying the Andesdecided to build a similar map for her native Peru.

The Peru COVID-19 map provides the latest information from Perus Ministry of Health, which is updated daily. Not only does it include diagnostic data, but it also displays the severity of the disease in hospitalized patients, showing the rising demand for ventilator support. An accompanying chart also shows the rate of new diagnoses over timemaking it possible to track the impact not only of the disease but of mitigation factors, like the implementation of social distancing orders.

It can be difficult to comprehend the impact of something like this from a news report or a press conference, Or says. A map like this can help the public easily understand how this crisis is affecting their particular area.

Both maps have been widely shared on social media, and the Tennessee map has been used as a reference by Metro Nashvilles coronavirus task force. Both maps are available for any public health agency or task force to use.

LIZ ENTMAN

For graduate students nearing the end of their programs, COVID-19 created an unexpected challenge: presenting an effective and engaging dissertation defense remotely.

That was the situation facing physicist Kyle Godbey, MA17, PhD20, who found out the weekend before his scheduled dissertation defense that he would be doing it by teleconference.

Everything happened quite late into my preparation for my defense, Godbey says. Luckily, as a computational physicist, Im comfortable with computersand I embraced the idea of a remote videoconference for the presentation.

His dissertation, Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions Using Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory, looks at low-energy nuclear reactions and what researchers can learn from colliding nuclei.

Kyles presentation showed that even under these unprecedented conditions, an excellent defense is possible, says his adviser, Professor of Physics Sait Umar. He delivered with a calm demeanor and presented his large body of work in a concise and pedagogical manner.

For Godbey, preparing his defense wasnt just a simple matter of flipping open a laptop and proceeding as one would in person. He tested his internet and audio connections the night before to ensure they would be able to handle the videoconference. He also had to consider that his material would be coming across screens as large as a television and as small as a mobile phone.

Beyond the technical matters, Godbey says certain aspects of his presentation also needed some adjustment. I tend to play off people a little during presentations, but in this case I had to stick to the script since I couldnt really judge peoples reactions, he explains. Jokes certainly dont land as well over Zoom, so I had to be mindful of that!

One benefit of presenting remotely is that ones presentation slides can serve as a kind of teleprompter, Godbey says. Its also less awkward to have your materials in front of you. This was beneficial in my case, as I was able to reference the more technical documents during the Q&A part of the presentation, which helped me address audience questions and keep them engaged.

SPENCER TURNEY

What do you do with 154 nursing students who are suddenly unable to participate in the hands-on nursing clinical care that makes up 60 percent of their education each week?

That was the challenge facing Mary Ann Jessee, MSN95, associate professor of nursing and director of pre-specialty education at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, and the 30-plus faculty members who instruct those first-year, pre-licensure students in patient care.

With the spread of COVID-19, the students clinical education in hospitals, clinics and other facilities was suspended in mid-March. However, VUSN was unwilling to postpone clinical learning and possibly delay the students path to becoming advanced-practice registered nurses. So faculty got creative.

For a couple of weeks, we had been determining what we would do if students werent able to be in the clinical setting, Jessee says. Course coordinators Erin Rodgers, BSN82, MSN86, assistant professor of nursing, and Heather Robbins, MSN05, assistant professor of nursing, brainstormed with Jessee about developing a virtual experience that would enable the students to engage in the same kind of clinical learning they would have been doing on campus.

They wondered whether they could use the Simulation Lab and have the students participate by telling someone in the lab what to do. The faculty consulted VUSN Simulation Lab Director and Assistant Professor of Nursing Jo Ellen Holt, who responded enthusiastically with suggestions.

The result was a virtual live-streamed class with students using their instructors and Simulation Lab staff as avatars to interact with the schools realistic nursing mannequins and provide patient care.

Students instructed their avatars on what to do, step by step, Rodgers says. The avatars reported the results, and then the students as a group evaluated whether that skill was implemented correctly and discussed the outcome.

The students joined the simulations via videoconferencing, working in the same six-student groups as they would normally. Each student experienced directing the avatar and discussing the scenario with their group.

We tried to mirror the typical direct patient-care experience and clinical conference, but in a virtual format, Jessee says. We had to determine how to recreate those patient interactions and ensure that students had the ability to conduct assessments, prioritize patient needs, make decisions about care, implement that care and evaluate the results.

Throughout the simulation the instructors observed and coached, as they would with actual patients.

NANCY WISE

When the university announced it would be moving to online learning options starting March 16, Tucker Biddlecombe, associate professor of choral studies and choral director at the Blair School of Music, was among the first faculty members to embrace the possibility of teaching his students over a videoconferencing platform. His conducting class was quick to adapt to the challenges and possibilities that remote learning presented.

There are a variety of challenges whenever you can no longer interface with your students, says Biddlecombe. However, there are also a couple of benefits. One of the things that was immediately evident was that students were not used to seeing themselves conducting. All of a sudden, they had a video feeding back to them immediately all the things that I usually tend to tell them. Their immediate ability to see themselves conducting [is something I want] to integrate permanently into what were doing.

The Melodores, a student a cappella group, has used videoconferencing to continue making and sharing music during the COVID-19 crisis. The groups recent video performances have been viewed more than 775,000 times on social media alone and have been featured on Good Morning America, ABC News, NBC News, and even in a recent campaign ad for presidential candidate Joe Biden.

With approximately 20 performances lined up for the remainder of the semester, the decision to send everyone home was particularly devastating for the Melodores, says senior Matt Zhang, the groups musical director. However, upon returning home, we quickly realized we didnt need to be together physically to connect and hopefully spread some much-needed positivity through our music.

Watch a video of Biddlecombe instructing his students virtually:

See the Melodores perform a Lizzo medley remotely:

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who graduated from Vanderbilt in 2000 with a bachelors in anthropology, has emerged as one of the nations more popular leaders during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Beshear moved quickly to stem the spread of the disease in the state, declaring a public health emergency early in Marchwell ahead of many of his counterparts across the nation. And his daily COVID-19 news conferences, which have been characterized as modern-day versions of President Franklin Roosevelts fireside chats during the Great Depression and World War II, have endeared him not only to the states residents, but to many others nationwide.

Gov. Beshear has started several recent briefings with his key message, We will get through this; we will get through this together, and then asked viewers at home to repeat it as well, as a kind of mantra for the whole state, The Wall Street Journal reported in a story mentioning his popular chats.

Beshears fans have turned to the internet to show their appreciation for his steady handling of the crisis. Dozens of internet memes have appeared comparing him to heroes like Captain America, Superman and even Mister Rogers. In fact, one Facebook groupAndy Beshear Memes for Social Distancing Teensnow boasts more than 227,000 members.

As NPRs Morning Edition reported March 25, Kentuckians are loving Gov. Andy Beshears leadership on the COVID-19 crisis. The fandom has produced a deluge of memes and videos online that are helping the state cope with these uncertain times.

Restaurateur and alumnus Flip Biddelman and his business partner, Nate Adler, have converted their Brooklyn, New York, restaurant Gertie into a part-time soup kitchen for hospitality workers who have been laid off during the COVID-19 outbreak. The workers are invited four days a week for dinner and essentials, including coffee, pasta and even toilet paper.

A grant from celebrity chef Edward Lees Restaurant Relief Program has enabled the restaurant to provide workers 300 meals a day, and whatever goes uneaten is taken to a nearby medical center for hospital workers.

When the coronavirus outbreak forced restaurants in New York to shut down dine-in service, Biddelman and Adler had to fire nearly all their staff as they scraped by with takeout business. That was one of the hardest things we had to doto tell our staff that we dont have any shifts for them and that they should file for unemployment, Biddelman told The New York Post.

But since starting the soup kitchen, they have been able to hire back five kitchen workers and four front-of-house staffersalmost their entire team. It has been such a relief, Biddelman said.

Missy Tannen, BS99, and Scott Tannen, BS99, co-founders of the textile company Boll & Branch, have announced a partnership with Sherwood Bedding and Downlite to manufacture 1,000 mattresses and 500 pillows, respectively, to donate to hospitals during the pandemic. Boll & Branch is among the companies recognized by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for their efforts to assist the state in its fight against COVID-19.

The generosity of these companies, organizations and individualsand many others coming forward every day to offer supportwill play a critical role in our mission to bolster our hospital surge capacity, support frontline workers, and get people the help they need, Cuomo said in a March 26 statement. On behalf of the family of New York, I am deeply grateful for their generosity.

Singersongwriter Chris Mann, who recently played the Phantom in The Phantom of the Operas 25th anniversary tour, has unveiled numerous music video parodies inspired by the pandemic, bringing some much-needed humor to viewers stuck at home.

The parodies include My Corona, based on The Knacks classic My Sharona, and Hello (from the Inside), a spoof of Adeles chart-topper in which Mann proudly sports a Vanderbilt sweatshirt. The videoswhich have racked up nearly 25 million views on the internet and earned him a mention in The Washington Post as one of the Weird Al Yankovics of our social distancing eracan be viewed at chrismannmusic.com.

U.S. Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.), a former banker and deputy assistant treasury secretary, has been named House Republicans representative on the five-member Congressional Oversight Commission, created to supervise government spending on the COVID-19 pandemic. The watchdog group was created as part of the roughly $2 trillion relief package enacted by Congress in March.

[Hills] personal background as a senior official at the Department of the Treasury and as a private banker provides important expertise that will guide his advocacy of immediate and effective solutions for the American people struggling from despair during this crisis, said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who had named Hill to the commission.

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And the Beat Goes On: A resilient Vanderbilt community finds innovative ways to thrive amid the challenges of COVID-19 - Vanderbilt University News

The small city of Gonzales brought universal broadband to its 9,000 residents by inking a deal with a telecommunications company that has a vast cell network, Joe Mathews writes.(Photo: Getty Images)

If California is really the global tech capital, why is it so hard for our small towns to get the Internet service they need?

One answer to that question is in Gonzales, a Salinas Valley settlement of 9,000.

While Californias biggest cities now struggle to provide Internet access for people to work and study from home, Gonzales solved that problem a few months ago. Before the pandemic hit, the town offered broadband service, free of charge, to all its residents. The story behind this rare achievement Gonzales is the first Central Coast city to do this offers lessons about power and how communities can beat the odds.

Gonzales leadership is not a surprise. The town, surrounded by fields, is a small wonder, with low crime,innovative health services, extensive supports for children, and a diverse industrial base employing local residents.

But even for a nimble city, securing broadband has been difficult. Gonzales long path to universal broadband suggests how hard it will be to turn temporary Internet measures of the pandemic like Googles hotspot donations or short-term service discounts into long-term bridges over our digital divides.

When Gonzales started its broadband quest, in 2005, Internet service was slow and unreliable, and municipal officials couldnt get service providers attention. So city officials joined the Central Coast Broadband Consortium and started visiting the San Francisco headquarters of Californias Public Utilities Commission to press for rural broadband.

At some PUC meetings, Gonzales was the only city represented. The small town didnt have much leverage until officials discovered how to advance their case for rural broadband by protesting corporate mergers and acquisitions.

In 2015, when Charter Communications sought to merge with Time Warner in a $78 billion deal, Gonzales moved to block California from approving Charters acquisition of Time Warner and Bright House cable systems, on the grounds that the deal wouldnt help small towns. Charter was forced to negotiate with Gonzales, which dropped its opposition after Charter upgraded the towns Internet, bumping Gonzales upload speeds from 1 Mbps to 60 Mbps, and download speeds from 5 Mbps to 100 Mbps.

A tech backbone was in place, but access to the Internet at home still remained a problem for many poor families.

On my visits to Gonzales, I often saw kids sitting outside McDonalds, Starbucks or even City Hall, using the free WiFito do their homework. In 2017, such scenes inspired the city to approve a strategy for achieving Universal Broadband for All.

Gonzales asked for proposals from Internet providers, and then rejected them all as insufficient. Instead, the city began individual negotiations with providers.

T-Mobile proved well-suited for Gonzales' needs. The company has a program called EmpowerED to get students online. T-Mobile has a dense network of cellular towers in the area providing coverage to drivers on the 101.

The T-Mobile/Gonzales partnership was approved by the City Council last October. T-Mobile upgraded wireless Internet infrastructure, and donated 2,000 Wi-Fi hotspotsone for every city household.

The city, not residents, pay monthly service charges, at a discounted rate of $12.50 monthly per household device. The total annual cost to the Gonzales government is $300,000 paid for with general fund revenues and a special sales tax approved back in 2014.

Anyone presenting proof of residency in Gonzales received a hotspot; so did households outside the city who attend Gonzales schools. Since COVID-19 forced shutdowns, the city has offered drive-by service for equipment pickups. Residents tell me the devices are already activated when you get them, so they are easy to use. Grandparents sing the hot spots praises, and college students from Gonzales, now back at home, say their city Internet connections are better than their campus ones.

They work really, really well, even with all the people suddenly online Google docs, Google Classroom, Zoom, are all working, says Gonzales High senior Isabel Mendoza, 17. Before, because we have 5 people in my house, and a number of electronics, the Internet was really slow.

Ren Mendez, the longtime city manager, has been fielding calls from other towns asking for broadband advice.

I think this is doable across the state, Mendez says, if cities push Internet providers to make deals that mix new broadband investment and cost-sharing. Why cant you provide broadband for the whole community, just like you do with sewer and water and streets?

Of course, it should be much easier for poor towns and people to secure Internet in California, which invented our tech world, than it was for Gonzales. But the city doesnt dwell on past struggles its moving forward.

Gonzales deal with T-Mobile is for two years, but its renewable. City officials are planning a trip to T-Mobile headquarters, and plotting the next chapter of universal broadband. It starts with 5G.

Joe Mathews(Photo: Courtesy)

Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column forZcalo Public Square. Email him atjoe@zocalopublicsquare.org.

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Connecting California: Gonzales' small-city leap to universal broadband a model for others - Desert Sun

Dr. Eva Galvez works as a family physician for a network of clinics in northwestern Oregon, where low-income patients have been streaming in for nasal swabs over the past several weeks to test for the coronavirus.

Dr. Galvez was dumbfounded by the results. Latinos, about half of those screened, were 20 times as likely as other patients to have the virus.

The disparity really alarmed me, said Dr. Galvez, who began trying to understand what could account for the difference.

It is a question that epidemiologists around the country are examining as more and more evidence emerges that the coronavirus is impacting Latinos, and some other groups, including African-Americans, with particular force.

Oregon is one of many states where Latinos are showing a disproportionate level of impact, and the effects are seen among both immigrants and Latinos from multigenerational American families.

Because most of the clients at the Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center clinics in Oregon are relatively poor whatever their ethnic background, Dr. Galvez decided that income could not explain the disparity.

Public health experts say Latinos may be more vulnerable to the virus as a result of the same factors that have put minorities at risk across the country. Many have low-paying service jobs that require them to work through the pandemic, interacting with the public. A large number also lack access to health care, which contributes to higher rates of diabetes and other conditions that can worsen infections.

Oregon last month expanded testing criteria to prioritize Latinos and other minorities, citing the higher risk posed from the virus because of longstanding social and health inequities.

At the Virginia Garcia clinics, Dr. Galvez sees those inequities among her patients every day.

We realized that it must be how Latinos live and work thats driving these disparities, said Dr. Galvez, who works at the clinic in Hillsboro, outside Portland.

The Hispanic patients, many of them immigrants, help produce some of the countrys premier pinot noir, maintain Nikes sprawling headquarters and plant berries, hazelnuts and Christmas trees in the Willamette Valley. Others are seasonal workers who are expected to begin arriving by the thousands later this month for the harvest.

They live in close quarters, often multiple families to a house or with several farmworkers crowded into a barracks-style room, where social distancing and self-isolation are impossible. They perform jobs that require interaction with the general public, in food service, transportation and delivery; and some also work in meatpacking plants that have emerged as major hot spots.

If they are undocumented, they cannot collect unemployment, which may compel them to work even when they feel unwell, facilitating the spread to their co-workers.

Carlos, an undocumented Guatemalan who was one of the clinics patients, never stopped reporting to his job cleaning large supermarkets, even after he began coughing and feeling ill, said his wife, Blanca, who did not want the familys last name to be published because of their immigration status.

Her husband medicated himself on cough syrup, but his condition quickly deteriorated, and he was gasping for air when she finally rushed him to the hospital. He died on April 1 from Covid-19. Now Blanca, her brother and the couples 13-year-old son have all tested positive for the virus.

The situation at the clinics in northwestern Oregon tells only part of the story of the nations 60 million Latinos, who represent a wide range of backgrounds and lifestyles new immigrants and multigenerational families, high-earning professionals and poor migrant farmworkers and the effects of the coronavirus already reflect that broad experience.

The disparities are bigger in states like Oregon, Washington and Utah that have newer and less-established Latino communities, compared with states like California, Arizona and New Mexico. In some states, including Arizona and Texas, state data shows that Latinos are getting sick at rates close to their share of population. In New Mexico, Latinos, who make up half the population and have a long history in the state, have about the same number of cases relative to their population as whites.

Not all Latinos are created equal, said Daniel Lpez-Cevallos, professor of Latino and health equity studies at Oregon State University. More Latinos in states with established communities, he said, are likely to have middle-class jobs or the sort of wealth that could help tide them over through the pandemic without having to work outside the home.

By contrast, those in places like Oregon and Washington tend to be lower income, with lower educational levels, lower levels of health insurance and more employment in essential services, Mr. Lpez-Cevallos said. They have fewer support systems in place.

According to a Pew Research Center survey in April, about half of the Latinos questioned said they or someone in their household had either lost a job or taken a pay cut, or both, because of the outbreak compared with a third of all adults in the United States.

The data from a number of states takes an unexpected turn: It indicates that even though Latinos may have higher rates of infection, they have been dying from the virus at lower reported rates over all than other groups.

But experts say those raw numbers understate the risks for those who become sick, because they do not take into account that the Latino population the countrys second-largest ethnic group is significantly younger than other groups. And there have been much fewer deaths among the young from a virus whose lethality grows sharply with its victims age.

But among adult Latinos, fatality rates can be much higher. That was what officials in California found when they took a closer look.

But when California public health officials drilled down further, they found that in every age group over 17, Latinos were dying at significantly higher rates than whites as were African-Americans.

Even in Oregon, Latinos have not appeared to be equally vulnerable to the impacts of the virus. Dr. Galvez, who is Mexican-American, lives in a middle-class neighborhood. My close friends and family have not been hit by Covid the way the community that I care for has, she said.

Before Oregonians were ordered to stay home on March 23, the Virginia Garcia clinic had started a campaign to educate Spanish-speaking clients about who was at risk of contracting the virus and how to prevent it.

Bilingual posters went up at the clinics, fliers were distributed and Dr. Galvez recorded a public service announcement that aired on a local Spanish radio station.

But she and other clinic staff members, who confer daily on Zoom about the pandemic, would eventually conclude that having knowledge of the virus did not mitigate its spread among people who are unable to self-isolate and cannot afford to miss a days work.

On March 11, Virginia Garcia began screening patients with symptoms of the virus at seven sites.

So far, the clinic has tested 397 Hispanics and 281 non-Hispanics in Washington County and neighboring Yamhill County, another agricultural hub. A total of 87 Hispanics, 21.9 percent, have tested positive, compared with three non-Hispanics, or 1.1 percent.

Hazel Wheeler, a manager at the clinic who has analyzed the data, deemed the results confounding.

We serve poor people, who live in the same geographical area and make about the same amount of money, he said.

But there were deeper distinguishing factors.

Most non-Hispanics whom the clinic has tested have been working from home, or staying home because they have been furloughed or laid off, typically with unemployment benefits. They were able to keep distance from everyone but immediate family members.

The majority of Latino patients, on the other hand, have remained on front-line jobs, and many are residing in crowded or precarious dwellings.

Rafael Castillo, a 37-year-old mason, learned he had the coronavirus recently along with two fellow Latinos on his construction crew.

The truth is, I dont know how we got infected, said Mr. Castillo, a Mexican green-card holder who has lived in the United States for two decades. When this illness started, our boss told us to work apart. We used hand sanitizer and washed our hands, he said.

Since he tested positive, his wife, Yanet Gonzalez, has also contracted the virus. Now Mr. Castillo, who earns about $3,500 a month and lives in a mobile home, said his main concern was keeping his two children healthy. The family shares one shower in a mobile home in Cornelius, Ore., which they try to disinfect after each use.

As they treat an ever-larger numbers of patients, Virginia Garcia medical workers are now worrying about the prospect of a second wave of infection when the annual harvest gets underway later in May.

By some estimates, the picking season for berries, pears and other crops brings 160,000 Latino seasonal farmworkers to Oregon. They toil side by side in fields and orchards during the day and bunk in crowded spaces at night, creating a fertile environment for the virus to spread.

A preview of what could happen surfaced in April in central Washington State: Half of the workers at a large orchard tested positive for the coronavirus, even though none had shown symptoms.

The findings caught the attention of Oregons Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, which last week introduced a series of measures to protect migrant farmworkers after Dr. Galvez and a nonprofit law center sought changes.

The state agency ordered growers to reconfigure worker housing to eliminate bunk beds for workers not part of the same family and to require at least six feet of space or an impermeable barrier between workers while they sleep. Growers are also required to designate an officer to enforce at least six feet of separation during work, breaks and meals.

The emergency mandates drew protests from growers who said the rules could cut the amount of housing available for farmworkers and help put many growers out of business.

Many farms will not survive the cumulative weight of these unattainable rules, which are more burdensome than any set for other sectors of Oregons economy, the Oregon Farm Bureau said.

State officials acknowledged that the emergency measures, in effect for six months, are unlike any other action taken by the state in recent history. But they said they were necessary to protect Latino migrants and the greater community.

Michael Wood, the top administrator for Oregons OSHA, said he hoped the rules would help avert the possibility that the virus tears through the picking season that runs until fall.

You cannot telecommute to harvest crops, he said.

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For Latinos and Coronavirus, Doctors are Seeing an Alarming Disparity - The New York Times

MONTAGUE Since starting in 1970 as a lawn-mowing service, Demers Landscaping has grown into a family-run company that bills itself as an expert in all things outdoors, from excavation to gardening. The company celebrated its 50th anniversary this week.

The company, operated out of 136 Turnpike Road, was started by Ed Demers, who still owns it, working with his brothers Rusty and Paul. Eds son Justin, who is now 36, started working with his father when he was 8, he said. Justin took over most operations about five years ago. Ed has mostly retired, but often consults on business decisions.

Ive been learning my whole life from him, Justin Demers said. He taught me everything I know about landscaping and excavation.

The company expanded its offerings and its service area gradually over the last 20 years, mostly in its efforts to maintain relationships with existing customers by meeting their new needs, Demers said. The company doesnt advertise much, he said, and instead relies on repeat business. As customers asked for more services, the company would add them to its toolbox to keep its position as a one-stop landscaping service.

Thats how we grew, Demers explained. Once you do something for one person, you now have the availability to do the same for other customers as well.

Demers Landscaping now does practically every piece of designing and maintaining the outdoor part of a home, Demers said the initial clearing of the house site, utility hookups, retaining walls, mulching, lawns, flower boxes, blacktop, patios and fire pits, to list some. This winter the company started plowing driveways, too.

Customers range from Athol to western Franklin County, and from Northampton to as far north as Brattleboro, Vt., Demers said. Because the business is so reliant on repeat customers, he said the company will often move with a customer who is moving to a new house.

Business usually picks up in early spring, as customers start calling about spring clean ups, Demers said, and the company starts rehiring its seasonal workers. By early May, business is typically in full swing.

But this year has been slower than usual. Calls for maintenance are still coming in, but the big installations and expansion projects that usually fill the companys summer calendar are not, Demers said. He suspects customers are probably uncomfortable spending the money, considering the uncertainty of how much longer the coronavirus pandemic could last.

Meanwhile, some seasonal workers are unsure about starting work again.

People are a little nervous about coming back because of the virus, he said. But its still early in the year.

Contact Demers Landscaping by phone at 413-863-3652 or by email at justin@demerslandscaping.com.

Reach Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.

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The Recorder - Demers Landscaping celebrates 50 years in business - The Recorder