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(05/11/17 1:13am)
For the second year running, Vermont scored highest among the 50 states and District of Columbia in public health protection readiness, according to the latest results from the National Health Security Preparedness Index. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the index measures the nation’s ability to keep people safe and healthy in the event of epidemics, foodborne disease outbreaks, terrorism and other large-scale public health emergencies.
Overall, Vermont scored 7.7 out of 10 points, compared to the national average of 6.8. The National Health Security Preparedness Index methodology involves collecting, aggregating and measuring existing state-level preparedness data from a wide variety of sources. The index then computes a range of key measures for all 50 states that, taken together, display the broadest and most comprehensive national- or state-level preparedness.
The index’s measures are grouped into one of six domains representing broad areas of preparedness activity. First, health security surveillance entails actions to monitor and detect health threats and to identify where hazards start and spread so that they can be contained rapidly. Next, community planning and engagement involves actions to develop and maintain supportive relationships among government agencies, community organizations and individual households and to develop shared plans for responding to disasters and emergencies.
The third domain is called information and incident management, which includes measures to deploy people, supplies, money and information to the locations where they are most effective in protecting health and safety.
Next, healthcare delivery encompasses actions that ensure access to high-quality medical services across the continuum of care during and after disasters and emergencies. The fifth domain is countermeasure management, which comprises efforts to store and deploy medical and pharmaceutical products that prevent and treat the effects of hazardous substances and infectious diseases, including vaccines, prescription drugs, masks, gloves and medical equipment.
The last domain, environmental and occupational health, is composed of actions intended to maintain the security and safety of water and food supplies, to test for hazards and contaminants in the environment and to protect workers and emergency responders from health hazards while on the job.
Vermont was rated higher than the national average in the first five index domains and matched the national average in environmental and occupational health.
Although a great tool for public health policy makers, the index results are not intended for ranking states. According to the report, states face varying threats and therefore should apply common preparedness principles in locally relevant ways.
Even with national plans in place for assisting with emergencies, such as FEMA, each state should be ready for any eventuality.
“All emergencies are local,” commented Pam Berenbaum who works as Professor of the Pracictice of Global Health and Coordinator of Global Health programs at the College. “The same storm plays out differently in Vermont than it does in upstate New York or New Hampshire.”
Despite improvements in nearly two-thirds of states, significant inequities in preparedness exist across the nation. Generally, states in the Deep South and Mountain West regions — many of which face elevated risks of disasters and contain disproportionate numbers of low-income residents — lag behind Northeast and Pacific Coast states.
Originally developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a tool to drive dialogue to improve health security and preparedness, the index remains a collaborative effort involving more than 30 organizations. State health officials, emergency management experts, business leaders, nonprofits, researchers and others help shape the index each year through its National Advisory Committee and expert workgroups.
“I was very pleased to see that the biggest improvement for Vermont was in the Community Planning and Engagement domain, because that is where the most powerful response is located,” Berenbaum said.
Developing and maintaining supportive relationships among community organizations and individual households for responding to disasters and emergencies is an area that the Index is committed to improving.
The National Health Security Preparedness index has launched a Preparedness Innovator Challenge to collect and spread best practices for using the Index to improve preparedness. Through July 31, users will submit their stories about how they used index findings as a tool to focus efforts and, ultimately, improve health security in their communities.
For more information about the National Health Security Preparedness Index, or the Preparedness Innovator Challenge, visit www.nhspi.org.
(03/16/17 7:23pm)
On Saturday, March 11, the streets of Middlebury were closed off to host the Ninth Annual Vermont Chili Festival. Despite frigid temperatures and a wind chill that had “Chili Fest” attendees begging for Proctor’s warmth, over 20 restaurants and organizations showed up with their vats of chili to satisfy the hungry masses.
Chili Fest has been ranked one of the Top 10 Winter Events by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, and the crowd on Saturday was a testament to that ranking.
“It’s freezing, so I wasn’t expecting it to be that crowded,” said Tristan Boyar ’20 at the event.
Participants in the event paid $8 at the door ($6 in advance, children under eight were free) and received a voting token and a spoon. Upon arrival, attendees walked down Main Street and sampled chili from the dozens of different booths there. After determining their favorite chili, participants were encouraged to vote with their token for the People’s Choice Award Winner.
A panel of six chili judges also attended the event, and they voted on six separate categories of chili which included veggie, beef, chicken, game, kitchen sink and pork. This year, Chili Festival saw the addition of a new category called “Anything But Chili.”
Winners all received cash prizes and then competed for the Best Overall category, which included a cash prize of $1,000, while second and third place received a cash prize of $750 and $500, respectively. Each individual category winner also received a cash prize of $100.
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One popular business represented at the festival was Two Brothers Tavern. It was the restaurant’s ninth year participating in the festival, and already it had established a name for itself: The vegetarian chili (which is on the regular menu) won second place in last year’s “professional vegetarian” category.
This year, the return of the regular chili was accompanied by venison chili made with local meat and complemented with maple sour cream. The tavern also served chips to cut the chili’s spicy aftertaste.
John Davignon, chef at Two Brothers, had confidence in his dishes. “Last year was a big hit,” he said. “We’re hoping to continue on.”
Even for the less zealous chili fans, the festival’s atmosphere and entertainment were more than enough for some participants.
“The guy running around in the Chili costume was the best part of the event for me,” said Sedge Lucas ’19. In the past, there have been dance performances, live music and flash mobs.
Whether you chose to eat chili, vote on your favorite sample, or went for the celebration, Chili Fest delivered lasting memories for many Vermonters.
(03/02/17 8:20pm)
Shop 4 Change opened on Feb. 11 as a Black Lives Matter safe space in Winooski, Vt. Here, the coffee is organic and Fair Trade and, judging by the turnout on the grand opening, delicious. But there is more than meets the eye at this sweet spot.
“I realized, hearing the stories of many, many Chittenden County residents of color, that there was definitely a need for a place they could come to, and to tell their stories in a more purposeful way,” recounts owner Ebony Nyoni to The Burlington Free Press.
The opening of Shop 4 Change is no doubt a step in the right direction for the growing black population in the county.
Speaking in regards to the shop, Assistant Professor of American Studies Jessyka Finley commented, “This is necessary and important work.” Finley is currently teaching a Black Lives Matter course at the College.
According to Vermont’s recently released 2010 census data, Vermont’s population overall grew to 625,741, which is a 2.8 percent growth rate. Non-white Hispanics, Blacks and Vermonters belonging to two or more minority groups each added more than 3,000 people to Vermont’s population. Asians added about 2,700. Yet, like other states in the U.S., Vermont is not free from reported incidences of discrimination against African-Americans.
The percentage of black people imprisoned in Vermont is nearly 10 times greater than the percentage of black Vermonters free in the streets. Black Vermonters make up just 1.2 percent of the state’s general population, but 10.7 percent of its incarcerated population.
In 2015, white nationalist fliers were left outside the homes of two Burlington women. More recently, in September 2016, a Black Lives Matter banner was stolen from a flagpole on the University of Vermont campus.
Consequently, the new Shop 4 Change center on Main Street “is here to make the lives of people of color in Vermont more tolerable,” Nyoni told The Burlington Free Press.
In 2015, Gov. Peter Shumlin designated Feb. 12 as Black Lives Matter Day. The Vermont chapter of the Black Lives Matter movement is fast on its way to becoming official. Until then, spaces like Shop 4 Change are necessary for building a stronger Vermont community.
Nyoni and the team of volunteers who run the shop are making a difference in a small way. Besides fair-trade coffee, the shop also sells pastries, Black Lives Matter apparel and donated artwork, all of which are for sale.
(01/19/17 5:07pm)
The thicket of aluminum crossbars, rising high and gleaming in the sunlight, could easily fill several football fields. Now these solar arrays are making an appearance all over Vermont with the latest installation scheduled for Bristol.
GroSolar, a renewable energy development and services company, hopes to build a 4.99 megawatt solar farm in the open field west of Route 116 across the road from A Johnson Lumber Co. in Bristol, Vt. The proposed solar array project would provide enough energy to power about 1,200 to 1,400 homes.
This new installation is just one in a series of projects to boost Vermont’s renewable energy resource. With the permanent closure of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant at the end of 2014, Vermont is producing less than 40 percent of the electricity it consumes and depends on power from the New England grid and Canada. As a result, state officials have been looking to alternate sources of energy. Gov. Peter Shumlin (D) of Vermont has pushed for 90 percent renewables by 2050 as a hallmark of his administration.
In 2015, nearly all of Vermont’s in-state net electricity generation was produced by renewable energy, including hydroelectric, biomass, wind, and solar resources. In fact, Vermont has enacted the nation’s first integrated renewable energy standard (RES), which makes utilities responsible both for supplying renewable electricity and for supporting reductions in customers’ fossil fuel use.
Last year, $106 million was invested in solar installations in Vermont, which was an increase of 39 percent over 2014. The total investment in solar projects is expected to increase substantially again this year. Over the next five years, Vermont is expected to install 569 megawatts of solar electric capacity. That is more than six times the amount of solar installed over the last five years in Vermont, according to Solar Energy Industries Association.
One consequence of the state’s overheated solar market was a bumper crop of solar panels sprouting up in Vermont’s meadows and fields, like the proposed project for Bristol. This was troubling for a number of people, and the Public Service Board attempted to address the situation in its new net metering rules that went into effect Jan. 1, 2017. For the uninitiated, net metering allows electricity customers to receive payment from utilities for renewable energy they generate in excess of what they use. The revised rules will give preference to development in what is known as “built environments” such as landfills, rooftops, brownfields and unused gravel pits.
Commissioner Chris Recchia of the Public Service Department has been quoted saying the new rules discourage — or do not encourage — as many solar projects on open fields because of the impacts on farmland. Beyond that, many would argue that the solar farms are a blemish on the pristine, billboard-less highways of Vermont, a feat accomplished by the state’s sign policy which prohibits signs that are placed by private individuals or organizations that allude to an event, sale, organization, etc.
Vermont’s largest solar project to date is a 4.7 megawatt project in Williston run by Green Mountain Power. It features around 20,000 solar panels on 55 acres owned by computer chip manufacturer GlobalFoundries.