Hike, Or Stay Home? Stuck in Patagonia
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Reader-Supported News for Philipstown and Beacon Bakeology Page 11 MARCH 27, 2020 Support us at highlandscurrent.org/join THE NUMBERS CLIMB — While Beacon residents fled inside to slow the spread of the coronavirus, a few miles down the road Breakneck Ridge was as busy as ever over the weekend. Some local officials are calling for the state to close its trails. Photos by Ross Corsair the wake of a COVID-19 crisis that has left Coronavirus Update outdoor recreation as one of the few activi- Hike, or Stay Home? ties allowed. But, according to the state parks depart- Mixed messages from departments, municipalities, on trails ment, its trails aren’t closed, including Break- Dutchess Has neck, whose trailhead lies just over the county By Brian PJ Cronin “Trails Closed,” the message began, line in Dutchess County, outside the purview asserting that, with the approval of the of Philipstown by a few hundred feet. First Deaths o, can you hike in the Highlands or state Department of Health, Philipstown not? By Wednesday afternoon, the state Depart- n Dutchess County on March 22 reported was “closing all trailheads along the Route That depends on who you ask. ment of Transportation had removed the its first deaths related to COVID-19. The S 9D corridor.” Cones and caution tape were On Tuesday (March 24), the Putnam caution tape and cones, saying it first had to health department said it could not share put up, and locals applauded the measure, County Sheriff’s Department posted on complete a safety review, and the parking lots the victims’ identities or where they lived which they saw as an antidote to the enor- social media that, as per a newly enacted were reopened, although Metro-North closed because of medical privacy laws but that mous crowds that have descended on the state of emergency by Philipstown Supervi- its lot near the Breakneck stop. the first, who died March 20, was 69 years Highlands, especially Breakneck Ridge, in sor Richard Shea, you could not. (Continued on Page 13) old and went to MidHudson Regional Hospital in Poughkeepsie after he had trou- ble breathing. The second was a 71-year-old man who died Wednesday (March 25) at St. Luke’s Hospital in Newburgh. Neither Stuck in Patagonia man had been screened or monitored by the health department for COVID-19 before Vacation becomes a staycation for Garrison family going to the hospital. By Chip Rowe navirus hadn’t hit,” recalled Nell Timmer, n State health officials said that, as of who is a nurse in the pediatric intensive Thursday (March 26), 94 people have tested ell and Ted Timmer watched with care unit at Westchester Medical Center. positive for the coronavirus in Putnam trepidation in January and Febru- When the family boarded the plane at County, 190 in Dutchess, 5,944 in West- Nary as the coronavirus spread JFK to South America on March 10, the chester, 1,197 in Rockland, 78 in Ulster and through parts of China and Europe. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 751 in Orange. Statewide, there were 37,258 The Garrison couple had been planning had only issued a Level 2 warning for Chile positives, including 21,393 in New York City. since last summer to take their five chil- [“practice enhanced precautions”]. dren, ages 5 to 14, for three weeks to the Two weeks later, on Monday (March n On Monday (March 23), Dutchess Patagonia region of Chile and Argentina. 23), that suddenly changed. The virus was County opened a mobile coronavirus test- They had attended a wedding in England moving quickly, and the CDC upgraded its ing facility in a parking lot at Dutchess as a family in 2015, but this would the first assessment to a red alert: “avoid all non- Stadium. The site is open by appoint- big trip with children who were all potty- essential travel.” There are more than 920 ment only and requires a doctor’s order. trained, eating regular food and carrying confirmed cases in Chile; last week, its presi- Nurses from Nuvance Health, which owns their own backpacks. dent announced a “state of catastrophe” that the Putnam Hospital Center and six other “As the beginning of March rolled allowed him to deploy the military, close the facilities, collect a nasal sample, send it for The Timmer family at Torres del Paine around, I was patting myself on the back (Continued on Page 7) National Park in Patagonia Photo provided for picking the one place on earth that coro- (Continued on Page 14) 2 MARCH 27, 2020 The Highlands Current highlandscurrent.org FIVE QUESTIONS: FLOYD NORRIS By Chip Rowe because of damage to lower Manhattan. ment prematurely relaxing the efforts now being made to control the virus. I and two By Michael Turton loyd Norris, of Garrison, was a finan- What are your major concerns? of my colleagues at Johns Hopkins Univer- cial reporter for The New York I worry each day whether the wild sity, where I teach economics, wrote about Times for 26 years and wrote a What’s your F market volatility is over, and I worry how that this week. [See cfe.econ.jhu.edu.] column on the stock market and the econ- people forced to stay home from work will favorite spring omy for the Times. get by. How deep, how long, will the coming Didn’t we learn anything from the recession be? How long until we feel confi- crash in 2008? flower? Stocks have plunged. Why can’t they dent meeting people on the street? We learned we need a functioning just close the stock market? It is, in a way, comforting to financial system. That made the People would trade anyway, because know what current prices bailouts necessary. We did not we have the technology to allow that to are. Not knowing anything learn as much as we should happen. If this virus had emerged in the might be worse. And that have about the dangers of 1970s or 1980s, they would have been forced is where we would be if the excessive debt, which is one Peonies to close the New York Stock Exchange floor markets were closed. reason so much government because it was a haven of close personal help is needed now. In 2008, I interaction. Electronic markets were not What else do you heard someone advise people able to function without the NYSE doing worry about? to simply not open their mutual price discovery [to determine the price of a It’s not just the effects fund statements and wait it out. security based on supply and demand and of the virus. Saudi Arabia’s It was good advice then. Will it other factors], so they would have closed at decision to send oil prices be now? My instinct is yes, the same time. Those days are gone; now down will, if not but I am not sure. the NYSE largely operates without person- reversed soon, to-person interaction, and the electronic bankrupt the Editor’s note: markets don’t need the NYSE. entire U.S. shale Norris is the husband People also need liquidity. Imagine the industry, caus- of Christine Bock- frustration if the market were closed and ing massive losses elmann, the board you had no idea how low it would go. What to investors and chair of Highlands ~ Linda Patterson, Nelsonville if you had a margin loan [to buy stocks]? job loss in the oil Current, Inc., which How would you, or your broker, know if patch. And I worry publishes this news- you needed to put up more cash? I suspect about the govern- paper. cautious brokers might just demand more cash, making a bad situation worse. And for people who lose their jobs, even temporar- ily, access to their money may be a neces- Lady Slipper sity. The $1,200 check in the new bill [in Congress this past week] will be far from enough for many people. Has the stock exchange ever been Stay in Touch closed before? It was closed from July to December of 1914, after World War I broke out. After it reopened, it turned out that the war was good ! for American profits. It was also closed from 9/11, which was a Tuesday, until the follow- ing Monday, but that seemed to be needed 50% OFF of all advertising in April! ~ Peter Henderson, Cold Spring Here are some things you AD RATES: can say with your ad: 1/16 • "We're still here" $20 • "Thank you to our 1/8 Red roses! community" $35 • "We're open for pickup" 1/4 • Offer a coupon or discount $75 • Feature your website and 1/2 online ordering $150 EMAIL Michele Gedney [email protected] ~ Patti Rinaldi, Beacon highlandscurrent.org The Highlands Current MARCH 27, 2020 3 Dear Readers t the end of this third week of April we will be offering deep discounts. protect our staff. Interviews are being disruption, I want to thank you For nearly 10 years, we have offered conducted by phone and email. Photog- A for your support — and to let this newspaper and access to our website raphers must go out into the world but you know we will continue to publish free to the community. We don’t receive keep their distance. Our regular Monday the paper and report on everything that revenue from subscriptions or newsstand morning editorial meeting is now held via is going on. As I told our members last sales. What keeps us going is the support videoconference. During the week, nearly week in the newsletter I send each Thurs- of our readers, and, in this moment of all of our layout design and editing is done day night, everything is happening, but crisis, that has allowed us to pivot and remotely.