 Okay, so good morning. Good afternoon. Welcome everybody who's joined us for the relaunch of Amherst community chats where we'll be talking with different department heads or town employees area employees every Thursday at noon. So today we are joined by town manager Paul Bachmann, acting public health director Jennifer Brown and director of senior services Mary Beth Ogilowitz. Thank you all for being here. So before, before we launch into Q&A, I'm just going to remind folks that if you'd like to make a comment, you can raise your hand and zoom. For those of you who are joining by phone star nine from your phone, or feel free to use the Q&A function within the zoom application. So I am going to invite the town manager to give any updates he might have. Thanks, Brianna. It's good to be back actually to do these things. I think they're very useful and helpful for us to hear from people in the community about what their concerns are and answer any questions that folks have. Of course, the big news for us. Well, two big news items last night one is we have the power, the windstorm that came through and knocked down a lot of trees. The crews are out. They were out all night. They're out throughout the day. I think about 10% of the town is without power, nearly 1000 customers of ever source. They're, I have not had an update recently, but I think they're trying to get as much done as they could during the course of the day. Town certain town facilities are also working on backup power so it's a pretty all hands on deck moment for our DPW crews and fire and police were running like crazy last night responding and closing down roads. So our roads are still closed. So that's one thing and the second was that yesterday last late yesterday and the afternoon. The state announced that the town was moving into the red zone of the for COVID-19 cases that red zone in football is a good thing and and for us it's a bad thing. And that indicates that there's been an increase in the number of cases in the town of Amherst over the past two weeks and we can talk more about that during the course of the conversation. Thank you for those updates Paul and I want to invite both Jennifer and Mary Beth to also report out in their areas so Jennifer would you like to start. Yeah. So my name is Jennifer Brown. I'm very happy to be here with you all today. I've been in the town as the public health nurse for seven years so I've spoken with some of you perhaps I'm the person that's called and asked you questions about Lyme disease or other infectious diseases. And I'm also the acting health director for a few more weeks and then we have Emma dragon starting in November. So here to answer questions and hope I hope I can add to the conversation. Great. Thank you. Mary Beth. Hi everyone. If you don't know who I am Mary Beth Ogilevitz the director of senior services and I'm thrilled to be here in any way that we can interact and meet with the community and also answer any questions. We have now operationalized as a fully functional virtual online senior center so it's a different experience of both for our guests who used to come here, people who have questions and also for our staff, but I really just want to continue to message that we are open. I still get calls all the time. People are shocked that we're picking up the phone. So we're close to the public but we are open and we're here every day eight to 430 so anyone who has any questions or concerns we are here for you. Great. Thank you Mary Beth. So I wanted to remind everybody in the room that we do encourage and we'd love to hear from you live so please raise your hand if you want to be welcomed into the room or pop the question into the Q&A. I did have quite a few questions that were emailed to me in advance from people who couldn't make it. But I do see Sarah with a comment and question who's with us right now live. So parents are distraught at the post moment of in person learning because of COVID-19 outbreak among off campus students, off campus UMass students. Can tenants be evicted and or property owners find for health and safety violations? So, yes, if they're true health and safety violations under the code that we would go to the landlord and say you need to fix these health and safety violations and that has happened with some households in Amherst recently actually where the our inspectional services department had made a visit prompted by a different event and found some safety situations where they said that to the landlord you cannot house people in this facility and so they were told they were given an order to fix it or evict everybody. So, and, you know, obviously the answer is to get it fixed as quickly as possible but that's the that's the tool that the town has. Thank you. So I see a hand from Amherst neighbors before I do that I want to let everybody know this is a an open meeting so anybody was able to join us I do see that western mass news it has joined the call so full disclosure. Western mass news is on the call. Okay, so Amherst neighbors I'm going to unmute if you could introduce yourself and ask your question. Great hi thank you I'm Liz Welsh with Amherst neighbors it's nice to see all of you and I'm so happy that you're doing this again. And anyway so my question and I, it's probably becoming a moot point with the numbers going up the way they are in Amherst. But we're trying to grapple with what under the state guidelines of phase three step two. How does that apply to older adults and as some of you may know we're an organization that part of our purpose though it's not what we've been doing currently is to provide volunteer services for older adults in Amherst. Some of those could be what we describe as non touch services which we're not doing now such as things like grocery shopping or picking things up, meaning not face to face. But how, but ideally at some point wanting to get to face to face volunteer favors that people do for one another. Our volunteers are older adults, they could be anybody but the core of them are older adults. So, I just don't know how under phase three. Stage two, what that could look like. So if anybody has any thoughts on that. Well you know what what I would share is is generally our approach here so obviously Liz as you know we have volunteers who participate who are citizens for older adults. And I've also worked with another organization called RSB P which is a volunteer organization that works solely with seniors to place them in locations. And I think that the general consensus has been an increasing understanding that the risk and the health risk of isolation is equally weighted as the risk of transmission of COVID. And so we've had a number of volunteers have come forward who said I have to do something I need to do something I need some engagement and some purpose and meaning. The great that I do is I work individually, first of all with anyone who wants to come forward as a volunteer to really have a very direct and concerted conversation around risk assessment for themselves making sure that they've taken into account. How they feel how their family feels their partner, they're their bubble because I do say that I've often had conversations later with children of older adults who who have some concerns about the older adult, you know, stepping into to doing something. So I always start with the volunteer and making sure they understand and and they have the ability to express any reticence down the line as well. And then with regard to our services the only ways in which we are utilizing volunteers out of an abundance of caution has really been ones that are contactless that doesn't mean that they don't see each other from a distance have the ability to have some conversation. You know, we have people who are doing technology support with really, we have folks who are delivering meals people who are making calls so that there's plenty of social interaction, but actually sitting in closer proximity for any, you know, like, more than five minutes. That's not something that we have felt, given the guidelines from the state that would be appropriate and I would just share that generally, you know, that that's been what most senior centers are doing and I'm happy to have a deeper conversation offline. That'd be wonderful. Thank you. I just don't know what the state guidelines say safer at home. I mean, yes, it's safer at home but how do we take that into consideration. Great. Thank you. Thank you for your question and you know at any point if you have another follow up question feel free to raise your hand again, or use the Q&A feature as well. We have a question that did get emailed that is kind of in this vein so I'll ask that now while we're on topic. A community member asked, are there any plans pending to resume Meals on Wheels? If so, when it seems counterintuitive to further isolate and limit options for seniors. Thank you. Yeah, so I think that there might be a misnomer here. So Meals on Wheels has always gone on. We have never shut down our meals and the support of nutrition. So Meals on Wheels is actually a program that's run by Highland Valley Elder Services. They enroll people if they meet their criteria and what we do is we deliver those meals that has been consistent throughout the pandemic and people have been added to those lists. So folks who are homebound by their own criteria get a meal Monday through Friday delivered and that has not ceased for a single day. We also, I think that the question might be more referring to our congregate meal, which is our shared meal experience. And again that has had to be curtailed by COVID. And the way that the workaround has been a grab and gross go service. So folks come to the senior center and we meet with them on the outdoor side wall, and they have their meal. And I will say the theory behind providing that nutritional support was never just nutritional support, it was around socialization. So the person posing the question is spot on that that's a really important function of gathering together for meals. And I would share that folks who come for our grab and go, it is a very social experience. People walk over together, they drive. We have a lot of folks who say you are the only person I see every day. This isn't one experience of socializing and that's why I come. Sometimes they don't even like the meal, but they just get up because they want to say hi to us. So, so that's an opportunity if someone wants to participate, you can call us at 259-3060 and we can get you enrolled within a day. And when you come to the senior center, you're just on the exterior. And also that we have a number of opportunities for socializing. Most of our classes online include a chat feature. What I mean by a chat feature is the exercise class might be 45 minutes, but then for the next 20, 25 minutes, folks are just saying hi and and convening online. So we have iPads to loan we have volunteers helping to get people up and running with technology. So if that if that person making the inquiry wants some assistance, please contact me and I'll make sure that you're looped in with those opportunities that that we're affording people and then also that Amherst neighbors is running programs. So Liz who just spoke they have online programs and we can help to connect you for that. Great. Thank you for all that information will connect that person directly with your team Mary Beth. So again just reminding folks please raise your hand star nine from phone or Q&A so that you can pop your questions in or come into the chat. I have another question here. Do you have advice for state staying safe for upcoming holidays should I let my kids and grandkids visit. Are we able to dine together. I'm going to add to that and then maybe Mary Beth if you have something you can contribute, you know, one thing we want to make sure is that people coming together. Do so if you can sort of contain sort of this bubble that we've been hearing about, if you know each other. If you've been interacting for 14 days. There's been no transmission that other people are aware of, then then you can sort of join people together but if you do have a lot of folks coming in from out of state, and that is something to consider how you're going to be joining. One thing is, you know, you do need to do people coming from other states. The travel ban sort of signing up for that, submitting that you're coming in, and you'll need a negative test before you enter this state. But other things that you can do. If you're getting together is considered the size, where is the activity going to be, can it be outside the number of people. Mary Beth do you have anything else you can think of. Well the only other piece that I would add is that we have technology so that folks decide that they're not going to have their holiday, and an elder is going to be home alone, and the family might be doing a zoom gathering that we can help to facilitate that for the family. So that's a piece I really want people to know. We have several accounts we can, we can facilitate families gathering online. So that that is just a very heartwarming and important marker for everybody looking into Thanksgiving so, again, any questions contact us, we'll see what we can do to help you, if you feel like you can't meet those parameters around being with individuals who've been quarantined and safe and within a typical bubble that you have interacted with. That's a really good question. And, you know, each case is going to be very different. Yeah, so we're having that conversation in our family. Are we going to do what we normally do in Thanksgiving or are we going to be adjusting that is it just going to be our immediate family and even then before my kids are grown, you know, before they come back and they need to be tested and making sure tests are available to folks is really important. And we do need it, you know, we need to see our families and stuff. So it's, it's, there's some judgments that every individual is going to have to make in terms of what they feel comfortable with what they feel safe, and following the typical protocols of, you know, you know, we were on a call yesterday after with with DPW or DPW with DPH with DPW was with the power. And it was like, what else can we be doing and they said double down on all the things you know, social distancing, wash your hands, wear a mask, you know, all those things, you know, avoid large gatherings. And we need to keep pounding on those basic public health mantras because that's what works. And so, if you are going to be gathering with the family think about all those things that you can bring to it, because we are going to be making we make judgments every day about risk, and this is a risk assessment that we each every individual have to make. Great. Thank you. So we have a couple more questions that were emailed in so I'm going to go to those next until I see a hand in the room or a question in the room. So this one came in just the other day my husband and I are in our 70s he wants me to stop early morning shopping at big why due to the rising positives in town. Is there evidence of increasing positives among the elderly general population, should I be concerned. I've always felt safe in that store in the early morning. You know, I would add some of the prior conversation to the answer for this one. You know, there are several there many mitigation strategies that you can take and that the business is taking to keep people safe. The businesses are cleaning high touch surfaces. They're spacing they're doing aisles one way there's plexiglass to keep the person behind that safe and you say. So I, I believe if you take these strategies yourself, wearing a mask, making sure your mask fits well, cleaning your hands, keeping your distance from people. I believe the risk is going to be very, very low. And again, it's being balanced with what Mary Beth was talking about is socialization. You don't want to be isolated. Don't get your food, take the right steps and you can do it safely. And this stuff that we're learning now here we are in October. So we're six months out and we're really this is getting back by science, you know, when this all came out in April and May, we were leaning on information from other illnesses, which is very pertinent and helps. But we know this is the way to prevent transmission. So I say go out in the morning and do shopping. You're out. Yeah. All right, I see a hand in the room so I'm going to ask Jeff to unmute and please introduce yourself. Hello, I'm Jeff. I know that my son soccer, high school soccer season has been temporarily suspended because of Amherst being in the red zone and I just curious are there other ways that Amherst is impacted. Well, the most immediate has been the sports. Other schools are canceling games that they may have with with our students, which is a shame. And because the sports for a lot of of our youth is their only outlet and it's and it's really important. You know, I think, in terms of other impacts, I think that just the, we worry about the impact on our businesses because the sort of general feeling Oh, it's a red community I think it's a, it's a very crude tool, and I don't think it's necessarily a helpful one. But it's designed to get people's attention, which it does but it has some some other consequences, which because it's such a public designation. And it doesn't take into account special circumstances, you know, we have a university here that that has a, you know, a high concentration of students there are other communities there's the town of Middleton has a jail in it. And they're red community because there's there's a surge in the jail, you know, the North Andover has a college and it's same type of situation so it's, I don't know if it's necessarily reflective of the general community but it's the, it's a tag, it's a designation that we've been tagged with and so again, it's the sort of more general opinion. I don't think that is necessarily based on health risks that people are making that decision. That's my opinion. I'm not I'm not a health director though. Either of you have anything to add to that. Well, I would say that when this designation started, you know, weeks ago. It just it felt like people were going to take this as this was the one piece of information to judge to make all our public health decisions on. And that is not the case. It's one piece. So we know our community. We know if there's transmission in what population. So it should be a conversation that we have all together with a superintendent with with other people in town. It's one tool, but that red designation it does catch your attention. So it seems pretty dramatic. And I believe that these games are being canceled not by the town of Amherst but by the opponent, the opposing teams. So good question Jeff did you have any follow up. No I was mainly curious if there are things that can't open now because of us being in the red zone or things like that. So I think we are prevented from going to get these phases and steps mixed up, but the only thing that happened on October, October 5 was that restaurants could were able to go to allow 10 people at a table instead of six bars were allowed to have people sit at the bar. You know, like skateboard parks and indoor things like that things that didn't really impact it was a very minimal impact on on the town of Amherst so I don't think it's significant for us. All right. So thank you Jen for your for popping in with your question always always nice to see you at our chats. I want to remind folks that we've got about six minutes left in our pre planned time for this community chat so now would be a great time to pop in with questions and I see a hand from Janet so I'm going to unmute Janet. Please introduce yourself. Thank you. Welcome. I hope I will first of all let me ask you a question. And also thank you for doing this and all that you are doing. It's greatly appreciated. I sent a letter on behalf of district one neighborhood association this morning and I'm so sorry that it came in late morning. Did you guys get it. Janet I think I think I did see it as just sort of one of many, but I believe I got it, Janet. Okay. And Paul did do you. I'm seeing it I just I'm just opening it now. Yeah. So, so, um, as we said in that letter on it was on behalf of the five of us who are on the steering team of district one neighborhood association and basically what we were saying is, we so appreciate what you are doing, and please keep doing those things. And then we pointed to some new things that we thought we saw in the governor's order number 52 that became effective on Monday. And we asked, um, especially that for an increase in enforcement efforts, and that was commensurate with the kind of risk that that of life or to people's lives, or of long term disability. So, you know, there are greater fines that could be assessed there are a number of things we asked for there. And that basically that large gathering should be treated as super spreader events and to have the ability for the Department of Health to depth to call the police and if there's something that's jeopardizing our health. I, you know, and we pointed out, I think that this is always difficult for for town officials or government officials but in time, you know, we pointed out that smoking regulations weren't popular everyone thought that that was going to bring the earth to an end. Seat belts weren't popular with it, but upping the ante did save lives, many, many, many thousands of lives so we hope you look at our letter and greater depth we I know you haven't had a chance to look at it in any depth, but that you will hopefully consider intensifying the response that in a way that's appropriate with the risk to people's lives. That's basically what we're asking. But yeah so thanks Janet so I haven't read it but we will read it in our core team meets tomorrow morning so I'm sure we will discuss the things that you put in that so thank you for doing that work and that's helpful to us. We did meet with the university we have a regular meeting with the university this morning and went through a number of these things. You know, again, we want to do things that change people's behaviors and there's one of the key pieces of public health strategy is to do successful contact tracing and testing. And the university especially feels very strongly that, you know, maintaining compliance of, you know, willing compliance by students to participate in that process is crucial to is an important factor for people to be able to for us to be able to conduct contact tracing successfully. So contact tracing agenda does this for a living so she knows a lot more but you want people to tell you what's going on. If they were at a party you want them to say yes I was at the party who did you talk to who did you spend time with, and then you follow up with those people and that's that's the way the system works. If students feel like there's going to be retribution against them for admitting that they've been at a party. There's a sense that that means they will not talk about things and so. So it's, we're sort of weighing the two things this sort of, you know, punitive measures, which we, some people feel is be more beneficial and and would would make people stop gathering versus the public health method of trying to ensure proper collection of data so we can actually address the things that are the people who have the disease. So that's the conundrum we have. The fact of the matter is that the event should correct me Jen is was not a large gathering that initiated this. This thing right. Correct. Yeah, it's small. It's like eight people or something. Yeah. So, but all that being said, we also know that the weather this weekend is going to be very warm. We are having additional police officers and ambassadors on the street to just discourage the gathering of people. It's not necessarily the size of the gathering. It's any gathering. And so we're putting more people on the streets. Especially in areas where there have been previous experiences of people gathering, you know, townhouses one of them but just a number of places throughout the community. And just making frequent going going by checking on if you see a party starting to form intervene start to have a conversation. Talk about the risks and things like that. The town has issued a number we issue numbers of those fines the $300 fines. You know, I think that that's some that that's, you know, and those are basically town bylaw violation because of noise or non cooperation or something like that. And then the university, they, you know, these cases do get reported to the university, they review every case over the weekend, or the prior week on every Monday morning. They have reported that there's 195 or something cases in the dean of students office being reviewed. I don't know what the disposition of those cases are. And they're not all COVID-19 violations, but they are they are handling these types of cases on a regular basis. So I have a number of live questions that came in from our participants. So I'm not sure if there's much more. If there's anything else on that topic, but I do want to answer it. It's my diplomatic way. You just say quiet down. So I'm going to my pants. No fly though. So I will answer, ask these in the order that they came in. So, first we have Hello, can you please tell us when and if the governor will be back up to a different phase. And what this could mean for schools and local business. Thank you. I think we have to be non red, which is lower risk for three consecutive weeks before we can move to a better phase. Great. So another question here, is there any indication of increased community spread of of coronavirus and the wake of the UMass outbreak or cluster. Jen. This cluster that we had has been defined as I think UMass is calling it around 30 or so. We know there are more students. So, those extra students. So 98% of the cases are UMass students. And they originated from that cluster and they've gone out in waves and sort of generations off of that, that initial small gathering. So we feel confidence say that the transmission is through this one demographic and is not per se in the general population. Is that a fair description would you say That made sense to me. And if it makes sense to me, I hope that it But if that didn't ask answer your question. I believe it was Sarah, feel free to just pop back in. I do have one more Q&A and a hand in the room. So we have another question here has there been an increase to the Department of Health budget and response to their new duties. So the town has CARES Act funds that can compensate for any additional costs that are related to COVID-19. So, you know, I think we have engaged a couple of additional nurses to help with contact tracing and whatever the Public Health Department needs. It's the top priority, but there are we have funds in the bank ready to go for those things. And I'd like to see a hand in the room. I'd like to welcome and invite Ava in. If you could unmute and introduce yourself, please. Hi, I'm Ava Fredkin. Thanks for taking my question. I just when Paul when you were mentioning about the COVID ambassadors being around this weekend to discourage gatherings, I'm wondering if Oh, you I'm wondering if you're able to say what look what streets they'll be on like will they be on will that they be going to Meadow Street summer street out this area. That's one question. And then connected with that is also will that only be during the daylight hours or will they also be around in the evening at night to also be discouraging gatherings. So ambassadors will be out. I think they go and they're out until eight or nine at night. Again, but the police officers will also be out. They will be doing they do knock and talk where and I think the next two afternoons they're doing summer bridge and townhouse either this afternoon or next tomorrow after now I forget what but they're hitting, you know, going where they go door to door. So specific places you think they should do. She should be email us and we'll put that on their list for them to show up. That's a good thing for us to know. So yeah, they'll be out. We are now answering the COVID hotline live until eight or nine at night as well and there's their ambassadors there and a police officer available to support them and they're answering the phone. Okay, thank you. So the email address, just for folks in the room to use is COVID concerns at Amherst MA of the phone line is 4132592425. Again, that's on our homepage and it's on our Amherst COVID 19.org web page if you ever need to find that and reference it. So thank you Eva for your for your question. So we are a little bit over time. I don't see any other hands or questions in the in the chat here. So, with that being said I'd like to invite our panelists to give any last statements that they maybe didn't get asked or something that you want to leave the room with. We'll pick on Paul first. I just want to thank everybody for being here and it's a really hard time. And I, again, please send us your questions because we do respond to them and we just shape how we are deploying our forces and thinking about things so I really appreciate you reaching out to us. Absolutely. Thank you. Mary Beth or Jen. I'll go. I'm happy to tell our older adults a couple of things one don't forget your flu shot newsletter that's coming I have listed all of the local places where that's going to be available for you. CBS target, etc. If you need some information call us to five nine three zero six zero. Also, please know that we have a senior health services nurse. And she is available Karen reynan and her number is 259-3257. So you have any questions that come up you can call and we will make sure that we get back to you and most importantly stay involved if you need ideas call us we can have you volunteer we can have you connect to a program, but as the weather gets colder it's really important to stay physically and mentally active and we'll help you with that so we're here all the time call me anytime. Thank you Mary Beth Jen. You know I want to say that I'm relatively new to this community and I see how people really care about each other here. And I just commend everybody. I know I love how we've been working together. I love hearing all the comments, you know the information that goes to the COVID hotline because what some of those that need to come to me they do come to me so it does keep my finger on the pulse, you know, per se. I appreciate hearing what people have to say and I really learned from from some of your comments. And then I was also going to say, remember to get your flu shot. Don't say, Oh, I'm not coming in contact with anybody I don't need it. Get it anyway, it's going to keep your use safe other people safe, and it builds up your antibodies for next year as well. That's great. That's a that's a good timely reminder Jen, and I will just say one last thing. This, this chat will be put up on our YouTube channel and our community chats playlist in case you want to reference something or share it with a friend or neighbor. It'll be up there shortly and we will be back next Thursday and subsequent Thursdays at noon. We will have our, we will announce where our special guests are probably in the next probably by tomorrow. So you can stay tuned, and join us next Thursday as well. And I want to say thank you for everybody who's joined us and to our special guests Mary Beth and Jen. Thanks Brianna. Yeah, bye bye. Have a nice day. Yeah, take care.