County Bought Time with Health Orders; Using It to Find Tests We Need to Figure out How to Reopen Safely
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NEWS | COMMUNITY | SPORTS | CULTURE | OPINION Crested Butte News the News never sleeps | www.crestedbuttenews.com VOL.60 | NO.14 | APRIL 3, 2020 | 50¢ County bought time with health orders; using it to find tests We need to figure out how to reopen safely [ BY MARK REAMAN ] While it is still too early to determine when the stringent public health orders deal- ing with the coronavirus outbreak will be lifted, county officials are formulating trigger points to determine when it will be safe to lighten some of the restrictions. For the most part, this comes down to testing and the ability to gather data that guides the appropriate direction. As part of PREPPERS: Local kitchen pros Mike Marchitelli, Stephen Alonzo and Sean Hartigan spent Tuesday prepping dinners for locals in that effort, local health officials are partner- need. The distributed 50 bags full of goodness. photo by Mark Reaman ing with a California-based laboratory to help validate a potential antibody testing kit. “Joni [Reynolds] is thinking ahead and knows we can’t be closed down forever,” Crested Butte said public information officer Andrew Sand- School district likely to continue strom, referring to Gunnison County public health director Joni Reynolds, who has the projecting e-learning through graduation authority over the public health orders. Sandstrom cautioned, “We need to fig- “We’re all committed to Nichols says teachers have been ure out how to reopen but do it so we don’t major revenue doing our best” taking full advantage of video resourc- end up where we were before. We get there es, issuing Google Classroom meet- through better testing and Joni is working [ BY KENDRA WALKER ] ings and real-time activities. “Those with her colleagues to see what are the best decline in 2020 are meeting with a lot of success,” she tests we can get for this community. A lot of But robust fund balances will Three weeks into transitioning said. “Across the grade levels teachers the tests are still under validation protocol.” likely get them through the crisis to an electronic learning format amid are finding great ways to connect with Sandstrom said the whole world is try- COVID-19 closures, Crested Butte Com- their students.” Nichols says some ing to figure out the best testing, noting that [ BY MARK REAMAN ] munity School is beginning to adapt teachers are still working from their only South Korea seems to have done it right. to its new distance learning approach classrooms for various reasons, to ac- He said this country still does not have the Having a healthy fund balance with and will most likely operate this way cess internet, for supplies and to create same deep infrastructure. He said large com- millions of dollars in the bank has put the through the remainder of the school videos for their students. panies are working quickly on tests and Gun- town of Crested Butte in a good position to year. The district has also taken meas- nison County wants to get in the queue for ride out the coronavirus storm. How long “Across the district there’s a really ures to ensure students can access when they are ready. the storm lasts will certainly have an im- positive enthusiasm,” said Gunnison those teaching videos and e-learning To try to get a place in front of the line, pact on town services but for now, town Watershed School District superinten- management systems. So far in Crest- the Gunnison Valley Health Laboratory is staff anticipates it can weather the situa- dent Leslie Nichols, recognizing that ed Butte, the school checked out nearly partnering with Vibrant America Clinical tion even if the revenues decline by 50 per- teachers, parents and students alike 100 computer devices and about 15 Laboratories of San Carlos, Calif. Vibrant is cent compared to what was budgeted for have had to take a crash-course in new hotspot devices to families that don’t developing a home collection kit for COV- 2020. and unfamiliar learning techniques. have access to internet service. “We’re ID-19 that will test for antibodies. If success- During a special meeting on March 30 “The partnership with parents is fortunate that as a district we don’t ful, the test will determine at what stage of the Crested Butte Town Council discussed stronger than it’s ever been. We have have a big need for devices,” said the viral infection a person is and if that per- the situation with staff, led by town fi- incredible empathy for parents trying Nichols. “Any student who has need- son carries coronavirus antibodies. nance director Rob Zillioux. Zillioux pre- to juggle work along with assisting their ed a device, we’ve been able to supply Vibrant officials said that profiling an sented the council with what he termed “a kids with learning, some trying to do it them with those.” individual’s antibody response is the only very, very preliminary forecast for 2020. in a situation where they’ve lost work,” From an elementary school per- way to determine infections with few or no Things could change dramatically if we said Nichols. “Our teachers are at a steep spective, students are accessing the symptoms. are not back open by June 1,” he said. “The learning curve, jumping into all the dif- online platforms at varying levels, says According to GVH, this information will good news is that the town has really good ferences between distance learning and principal Sally Hensley, and teachers provide significant research to improve test- reserves. The bad news is we’ll be using learning in a classroom. I think we are are doing their best to balance between ing methodologies, so the intent is to utilize a large amount of those reserves to get learning how to go slow and to adjust the online and “hands-on” activities. people in Gunnison County who have al- through this.” our expectations of what we would typ- ready been tested. Describing the projections as cautious- ically think of as engagement.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 17 CONTINUED ON PAGE 17 ly optimistic, Zillioux said much depends on the federal and state financial assistance being set up. Zillioux said during the last two recessions, it took the town about five [ Overheard ] years to get revenues back to pre-recession levels. He said basically he was predicting Why do you even bother to the budget would be off a total of about get dressed every day? $1.5 million between the general fund, the capital fund and the affordable housing -Good question at a local fund shortfalls. quarantined home 18Profile: Will Shomaker 20 Weinberg goes Euro CONTINUED ON PAGE 15 6 | April 3, 2020 EDITORIAL Crested Butte News WORLD NEWS WORLD Blood test may detect more than 50 types of cancer Researchers have developed the first blood test that can accurately detect more than 50 types of cancer and identify in which tissue the cancer origi- nated, often before there are any clinical signs or symptoms of the disease. Researchers suggest that “this test might intercept cancers at an earlier stage and, by extension, potentially reduce deaths from cancers for which screening is either not available or has poor adherence. To our knowl- edge, this is the largest clinical genomics study, in participants with and without cancer, to develop and validate a blood test for early detection of multiple cancers.”—information compiled from The Good News Network Goats overtake Welsh town on COVID lockdown Residents of Welsh town Llandudno said a herd of 122 Kashmori goats is taking advantage of the coronavirus lockdown by overrun- photo by Nolan Blunck ning neighborhoods and feasting on hedges and other plants. Locals said the goats wandered away from their home in the Great Orme country park and ventured into city’s streets. The North Wales Police Rays of sunshine in the darkness have said they will not be responding to non-emergency calls about the animal trespassers, and believe the goats will eventually leave town on Talking to Michael Marchitelli Tuesday morn- food insecurity during this unprecedented time. their own. Next stop, London gardens? — information compiled from UPI ing, I guessed he would go through maybe 20 or Thank you. 25 bags of food for people in need. He was prep- Van Gogh painting stolen from Dutch museum ping 40. It wasn’t enough. As the line formed at Local teachers are learning how to teach our The Singer Laren museum in the Netherlands announced that a 4 o’clock he ran back in the freezer and got some children outside of the classrooms. They are learn- painting by Vincent Van Gogh vanished after thieves broke into lasagna to substitute for the pasta dish he had pre- ing, like all of us, how to adjust to a new reality. the building early in the morning. The museum shut its doors ear- pared. It was all gone by the time I saw him again Whether a student is in kindergarten or high lier this month as part of the effort to slow the spread of the COV- at 4:30 and he was heartbroken he had to turn school, the local teachers and administrators are ID-19 coronavirus. Van Gogh’s “Spring Garden,” painted in 1884, some people away empty-handed. He plans to keeping relationships alive and keeping students depicts the garden of the parsonage where his father lived as pas- prepare a lot more food next Tuesday. Thank you. engaged. Both are important in this small school tor. The thieves forced their way in through a glass door, triggering of ours. Thank you.