| Dr. Locke’s COVID-19 Update – Mon May 11th – 9:45 a.m. *Online* Weekly COVID-19 weekly update with Jefferson County Public Health Officer, Dr. Thomas Locke at today’s meeting of the County Commission. To watch live or recorded videos of the entire 9 a.m. Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting, including the 9:45 a.m. COVID-19 update, go to the website for videos of meetings. You can choose “Streaming Live” or, if viewing later, “Recorded.” You can also listen live to Dr. Locke at 9:45 a.m. on KPTZ or find listen to Dr. Locke recorded on KPTZ home page. Powerful Tools for Caregivers Class Starts – Mon May 11th *Online* Are you taking care of a vulnerable family or friend with Alzheimers? Or someone who has high medical or daily living skill needs? Do you know someone who is a family caregiver? Covid 19 and the Stay-at-home orders have particularly impacted family caregivers. Most are vulnerable adults taking care of even more vulnerable adults. Each Moment Counts is offering a free, online, evidence-based weekly educational and support program beginning May 11 and continuing for 6 weekly sessions through June 22. Limited seats are available. Class is free to most family caregivers. Click here for details and registration are here. Questions? Email Margaret Taylor or call 360.385.1029. Dates and Time: Mondays 10-11:45 a.m. beginning May 11th and ending June 22nd (6 weeks). My Mother Was Here with Filmmaker Q & A – Mon May 11th *New* Join Meaningful Movies Port Townsend and filmmaker Rustin Thompson for an online screening of the award-winning, locally produced, and very personal My Mother Was Here. After a group viewing of the film as a group on Zoom, there will be a Q&A session with filmmaker Rustin Thomson. Donna, 84-years old, lives alone on the property she’s owned for over half a century in rural Washington State. She exists on a school bus driver’s pension, social security, and Medicare. She’s never had a credit card, never voted, and never flown on an airplane. Quietly stubborn, she is estranged from all surviving members of her family, except for her son, the filmmaker. When her health begins to fail, she calls on him. This screening is online via Zoom and registration is required here. Questions? Email Meaningful Movies. Parade Honoring Healthcare Workers – Wed, May 13th. Noon *New* This is National Hospital Week! Let’s show our gratitude for the hospital district staff who put their compassion and expertise to work for us on the frontlines during challenging times. Wednesday the 13th, from 12 noon to 12:15 p.m., there will be a bicycle and car parade around Jefferson Healthcare Hospital. Bikers meet at 10th and Sheridan, 6 feet apart. Cars will line up along Sheridan as well. Drive/ride honking, yelling, holding up signs of gratitude as we turn down by the Emergency Room/Express Clinic and continue around in front of the Waterside entrance and back up by Manresa Castle. Don’t be late – it will be short, loud and heartfelt. For questions contact Kees Kolff. Coffee with City Manager Mauro – Thurs May 14th- *KPTZ 91.9FM* Port Townsend City Manager John Mauro’s weekly coffee meeting with the public is featured on KPTZ’s Discovery Road, hosted by Tim Quackenbush. Every week Mauro takes questions from listeners from 10:00 -10:30 a.m. Call in on 360.215.7270 or submit your questions to John ahead of time by email here. If you’re unable to listen live, the conversations will be posted on the Discovery Road page. Farmers Market – Sat May 16th – Uptown PT *+ Online” The Port Townsend Farmers Market is open! The Saturday Market in Uptown PT is laid out without a middle row and ten feet between vendors booths. A limited number of shoppers at a time are admitted through a single entrance. Handwashing and hand sanitizer are available. Market vendors, staff and volunteers wear masks. Food is bagged or arranged so shoppers only touch food they are purchasing. Now the market is also online! Place your order online here by 1pm Thursday and pick it up during market hours. Time: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Location: Uptown, Tyler Street. “The Green New Deal” at Climate on Tap – Mon June 1st *New* One year in, where are we at with the Green New Deal? Learn about and discuss federal legislation aimed at advancing a green economy and the simple ways to get individual and collective voices heard at the federal level. What would a Green New Deal look like on the Olympic Peninsula? Climate on Tap sessions are held on the first Monday of the month. The class is held via the Finnriver Incider Space. Check their web site for information on how to sign up and get the Zoom link. Co-sponsored by Local 20/20 Climate Action and Jefferson County Public Health, each session includes information to get the conversation started, followed by group discussions that include what locals think and what locals plan to do. For info email Laura Tucker or call 360-379-4491. Time: 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. Location: Online Permaculture Homesteading Internship – June 18th-October 2nd Join The Dirt Rich School for a three-month Permaculture Homesteading Internship! The Dirt Rich School is an educational permaculture farm and modern homestead that shares radical land-based living and practical alternatives to capitalism. They believe in sharing the skills and knowledge to reconnect with the land and invite others to join in. Check out the website for more information. Email Kateen with questions about the application and sign-up process. Duration is June 18 – October 2nd at The Dirt Rich School at Compass Rose Farms, 1463 W Uncas Rd, Port Townsend, WA. |
| Community Notices Local 20/20 COVID-19 Resources l2020.org/COVID-19/ This week there are updates to the restaurant list (123 Thai, Golden Ocean, Gearhead Deli, Nifty Fifties are all open, and Loggers Landing on Fri and Sat) and a relatively new link to guidance from the Sheriff’s office regarding violations of the Governor’s Stay Home, Stay Healthy order. The grocery store list has also been updated recently. Local 20/20 COVID-Resources is by the community, for the community, with 10 organizations coming together to contribute. Did you know… The Benji Project’s trained teachers host free 1-hour sessions to share stress relief, connection, and coping practices, twice a week for middle and high school age students. Questions? Contact Teresa at 360-821-1960 The WSU Extension Master Gardener Seed Library is offering their community seed inventory to new members by mail. You can support local retail businesses by using their online shopping options, including to buy gift cards for future use; the Chamber of Commerce has a new list here. Masks are still needed, see the county’s How to Help page The Dept. of Emergency Management puts together a new situation report each weekday that tells you all about COVID-19 in Jefferson County? Find it at the top of the page. There are a variety of links for giving or receiving assistance on the page, see the Assistance section on the left You can also find out about growing your own food and how to give help and get help with housing, business, unemployment, mental health, and more! The COVID-19 Emergency Fund *Update* So far this year, the local community has donated over $401,198 to the Jefferson Community Foundation’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund. And $314,808 has already gone directly back into the community in the form of grants for projects that meet urgent needs. See the list of recipients and learn about the funded projects here. The COVID-19 Emergency Fund supports local nonprofits and community-serving government agencies that help meet basic human needs and facing their own financial hardships. Anyone can make a donation by giving to a general fund or directly to one of the local organizations who has registered with the campaign. Organizations that want to have needs posted can email Jen Kingfisher or call her 360.385.1729. Just Soup Now Feeds Neighbors at Two Locations! *New* On Thursdays, a free, hot soup lunch, with curbside delivery is available at the Market Kitchen, 1433 W. Sims Way from 11:30 to 1:30 through funding from the Jefferson Community Foundation. Pick up a lunch or yourself or your neighbor in need. No questions asked. On Tuesday and Friday, Just Soup provides free, hot soup lunches at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 1020 Jefferson St, on the Tyler St. bus line [by the Bell Tower.] Enter the rear church parking lot on Franklin, and whether you are on foot, bike, or car, you will be in line for curbside pickup, with masks, gloves, and safe distancing protocols in place. Friday’s soup is provided to St. Paul’s by Lehani’s Deli. Many partners and supporters have come together to feed Port Townsend one bowl at a time!!! This information also appears on Local 20/20 COVID-19 Resources Meals Page here. Time: 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. Days and Location: Thurs at Market Kitchen; Wed & Fri at St. Paul’s. Virtual Tour of Recovery Cafe Join Dove House staff on a virtual tour of Recovery Cafe – a beautiful, safe, warm, drug-and-alcohol-free community where everyone is welcome to find peer support for recovery (and we’re all in recovery from something). Here’s avideo of a 3D rendering of the design of the remodel. And click here for a virtual tour of Recovery Cafe Jefferson County at 939 Kearney St, Port Townsend. For more information about this program, how we’re navigating the pandemic, or an update on construction timeline, visit www.recoverycafejc.org or email Brian Richardson or call him at 360-821-1985. Movement Generation’s Course Correction – Series starts May 19th *New* Movement Generation Justice and Ecology Project recognizes this pandemic as a time of possibility to act collectively to make needed ecological and economic shifts. Leading with their hearts, the group has created a four-session online course that helps reframe the COVID-19 crisis. This is an opportunity to discuss real solutions and strategies that address structural inequities. The series meets Tuesdays – May 19, June 2, June 16, June 30 – from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. Spanish and ASL interpretation and live captions are available. Visit the website for full course info and updated session descriptions. The small group discussion guide is here. Questions? Email the organizers. Webinars on Community Gardens and Small Farms *Update* Cultivating Success Sustainable Small Farms Education presents weekly free webinars from WSU and partners. Selling Your Products on Etsy” on Mon, May 11; “Fundamentals of Produce Safety: Part 1″on Tues, May 19 ; “Fundamentals of Product Safety: Part 2” on Tues, May 26 ; “Taking Eggs to Market: Safe Egg Handling & Delivery” on Tues, June 2. All sessions are at 11 a.m. Register here. Tutorial on Zoom use here. Earth Day BEARTH Day sound recording release In honor of this year’s 50th Earth Day, artistic collaborators from near and far shared sound recordings that convey compassion for the planet and all beings. Members of Local 20/20 Resiliency of Heart group and friends contributed short recordings of sounds, poems, wishes, and words of praise. Working in the sound studio, Adrianna Santiago wove these contributions together into a collaborative work for an Earth Day release. This remarkable piece is now available in an mp3 file here for our listening pleasure. Artists’ naes and works are listed here. Host a Meeting on the Local Housing Emergency The Housing Solutions Network offers a free 1-hour program on Zoom and the opportunity to convene a group to learn about Jefferson County’s housing emergency. Participants watch a 13-minute video about the local housing crisis and explore and cultivate solutions in a facilitated conversation. HSN will provide the Zoom invitationand link, support to access Zoom for those who need it, facilitation of the discussion, and any follow up that participants may want. To initiate a screening watch the video trailer and contact Justine Gonzalez-Berg. Seeds by Mail from the WSU Seed Library The WSU Extension Master Gardener Seed Library offers seeds by mail to new members. Gardeners borrow seeds, grow plants, and return the seeds from some of your plants at the end of the season. To become a member, visit the website to see the seed inventory and fill out a form. No payment is necessary, however monetary or stamp donations are accepted. Please also support professional seed companies, local seed vendors and nurseries for community seed resilience. Questions? Email Seed Library here. Solstice Family Farm Internships Available Solstice Family Farm is a 33-acre homestead farm on Beaver Valley Road in Chimacum. They grow produce, eggs and animals for market, and much of what they need for their table. They seek two enthusiastic interns to work now through November, to learn growing techniques for vegetables, fruit, meat and eggs, orcharding, pasture management, animal husbandry and other sustainable agriculture skills. In exchange for 21 hours of labor and 4 to 8 hours of feeding and chores per week, interns receive lodging, a row in the vegetable garden and the opportunity to enjoy surplus produce and eggs. For details, visit the farm website or call Jennifer White 360.215.0786. LION Emergency Loan Program LION, the Local Investing Opportunities Network, has established a new loan program for Jefferson County businesses and non-profits needing funding to deal with the COVID-19 emergency. The loan application and instructions are downloadable here. LION welcomes inquires from people who would like to become a member and increase the resiliency of our local community. LION is affiliated with Local 20/20 and EDC Team Jefferson. Information is on the LION COVID-19 Emergency Loan Program website. Email Brian Kuhor call him at (360) 379-4693 for further info. Download Port Townsend Walking Times Map Local 20/20 Transportation Lab‘s popular walking times map is downloadable here. It provides approximate travel time on foot between points. Estimates are based on an average speed of 3 mph. Walking is healthy, social, fun, costs nothing, keeps your carbon footprint small and allows you to maintain social distance. Use the map to find new routes across our beautiful town. Emergency Text Alerts from Jefferson County Sign up to receive Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management’s emergency alerts by text on your mobile phone and/or by email. NIXLE messages provide crucial information in an emergency & are sent directly to your text-enabled device and/or email. The sign up web page also has information about other alert and warning systems, including the tsunami warning system and the WASDOT alert system. A Tool for Neighborhood Organization *Updated* Nextdoor is a private social network for neighborhoods. Use this link to join one of 59 Nextdoor Neighborhoods (NDN) in Jefferson County. Currently there are 10,844 subscribers, with many new members joining each day. Email Pete Hubbard with questions or comments. Library Resources A to Z Bookmark this Jefferson County Library page to access to a HUGE number of free resources from A (Academic Search Premier, Ancestry.com, and Automotive Resources) to the Washington Anytime Library with its e-books and audiobooks. In between find Kanopy for three free full length films per month plus unlimited Kanopy Kids and The Great Courses. ProQuest takes you to scholarly journals, dissertations and theses, books and videos. (A feature that limits searches to peer-reviewed material yielded 503 studies for the search term COVID-19.) Classes? Try Mango for languages, Lydna.com for computer skills and more. You don’t even need a library card to access the Khan Academy for homework help from pre-school up through advanced placement and test prep. If you have trouble logging in, call 360-385-6544 Mon-Fri between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. to get help from a librarian. Calling Local Photographers! Local 20/20 Weekly Announcements invites local photographers to submit images that capture the character of our community and its natural setting. For the opening photo of each weekly email, we seek local color, horizontal (“landscape”) orientation, and jpeg format. Please no children, pets or recognizable faces. Kindly send to events@l2020.org. Please include your name in the jpeg filename. We are an all-volunteer non-profit, so compensation for your talent and generosity is a photo credit and our profound thanks. |
| Resilience Readings Do you have readings, podcasts or videos to share that are aligned with our Local 20/20 mission? Please submit them here for consideration. Fraying Food System may be our next Crisis Here on the Olympic Peninsula many of us feel a little exposed due to our reliance on food supplies that come by truck over a floating bridge or via ferry or by a twisty long two-lane road. Richard Heinberg, a classic systems thinker explores the multiple weak links in the supply chain with this comprehensive but concise essay. As Heinberg describes, “For better or worse, this is likely to be a historic moment of change for our food system.” Please read this article and give thought to what we want our food system to look like in the post-COVID times. Its time to prioritize food system resilience. Barter, Hours Banking and Skill Shares *New* Current information on bartering, time-banking and skill shares appear in the May newsletter from Zero Waste Washington. The age old tradition bartering has scaled up in Bellevue with BizX. Timebanking has a century plus of experience in exchanging time credit among those who offer skills or resources to someone in the network. Contemporary platforms include TimeBanksUSA,hOurworld, and TimeRepublik. In Washington, West Seattle, Seattle’s Belltown, Kirkland, and Spokane have timebanks and can help. For skillshare see Hands on Skill Share an annual event of Sustainable NE Seattle, a Transition Initiative. Email Kami for info. Other issues Zero Waste is working on are here. A Light at the end of the COVID tunnel? *New* Patrick Holden of the Sustainable Food Trust asks whether the light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel is a new awareness of the need for resilience in our food system or is it simply the light of the train that is the globalized system. This article argues that we must move away from a centralized food production system and towards local production and processing. The author likens making these kind of changes as analogous to reversing a supertanker with its huge forward momentum, and that this indicates the the change will have to be initiated by citizens as opposed to governments. Holden offers food for thought, and the kind of thought that is organically springing up in localities all over the world. Find the article here. The Sequel: a David Fleming movie The visionary thinker and economist David Fleming used the term “Climacteric” to describe the set of converging crises that would punctuate the era of market capitalism. His thoughts and essays were gathered into a dictionary called “Lean Logic”, edited and published posthumously by Shaun Chamberlin. Chamberlin also out out an interpretive book based on Fleming’s works, “Surviving the Future: Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy.” This book was the focus of a Local 20/20 discussion group last year. Fleming’s prognosis for how to reorganize after the end of this era was localization. And while transitioning to a system of localized everything when we’re still a global culture seems near impossible, in Fleming’s words, “it has the decisive argument in its favor that there will be no alternative.” Recently a film has been released describing some of the key concepts of Fleming’s work and how they’re being implemented around the world. You can find “The Sequel” here. Its offered by Vimeo for a $2.99 rental fee. Four ways COVID-19 will change Food Systems and Food Security Another great food-focused article! Humans are social animals. No man is an island. Food is social. Author Wayne Roberts places our food system into context with regards to the nature of our species and the dysfunctional nature of how we manage food, health care, and much of our society. I especially like the call to recognize the value of our food system workers, to acknowledge that in our current crisis the average grocery worker is a super hero. Take some time to think about our local food system, link to the article is here. Weeds we Like to Eat Foraging skills are fun to learn. How to work chickweed and miners lettuce into the spicy arugula for a salad. Its always good to know what exactly is growing around us, and that’s especially so in these times. Read this article from author Kara Stiff and learn about what’s available to eat all around us. |
| Quarantines in Port Townsend History The Marine Hospital at Port Townsend was founded in 1855 by Dr. Samuel M. McCurdy and operated the city’s first quarantine facility. James G. McCurdy describes it as follows: Port Townsend’s pest-house was situated in the dense woods about two miles west of town. Here the unfortunate patient was kept under the care of a volunteer nurse, usually an old sailor, and a doctor visited the sufferer when he could spare the time. There was a smallpox scare in Port Townsend in 1868. The Olympia-based Territorial Republican tried to comfort the public by reporting: We learn the rumor of smallpox being prevalent at Port Townsend is without foundation. The only case that has occurred in that town was the one of Capt. Makenzie, who died at Sires Hotel a fortnight hence. The hotel, which was closed to the public for nearly a month, has been entirely purified, cleansed, and refitted.  Congress passed the National Quarantine Act in 1878 to prevent vessels carrying infectious diseased into the United States. In 1893 the Quarantine Station for Puget Sound was established on Diamond Point on the western side Discovery Bay. Dr. B.S. Conover, who had been in charge of quarantine services at the Port Townsend Marine Hospital, was put in change. There ships were disinfected and passengers suspected of carrying infectious diseases were isolated. In operation for 43 years, the station eventually had 27 buildings. Plans for a new quarantine station at Point Hudson were announced in 1932. Dredging to enlarge the former tidal lagoon and construction of the building took place between 1934 and 1936. After viewing the plans, James McCurdy wrote in 1934: When the plans for the improvement of the site have all been carried out, the station will be one of the beauty spots of Puget Sound. Sources: History Link, Peninsula Daily News, Jefferson History Society Photo Archive. |
| Do-it-Yourself Face Coverings that Work *New* It looks as though we’ll all need masks for a while. Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management gives clear criteria for community masks and hospital masks and calls on volunteer makers to help meet ongoing need. DEM states that “there are many designs that can be made the meet the above criteria” and offers examples of designs for community masks and hospital masks. The Center for Disease Control’s page on DIY cloth face coverings has updated information on how a mask should fit to help makers tailor to individual faces. The site also offers print and video instructions for sewn and non-sewn masks in a variety of designs and fabrics. A DIY breathable pleated mask that uses non woven fabric as the inner layer and includes a pocket for an additional filter likely meets the hospital mask criteria. The Washington Post has clear instructions for a three layer non-pleated cotton community mask. Forbes magazine continues to update its March 20th article Calling All People Who Sew And Make: You Can Help Make Masks For 2020 Healthcare Worker PPE Shortage with a host of new resources. As for video instructions, Michigan’s UnityPointHealth has an easy-to-follow 18-minute Instructional video for sewing the Olson mask (COVID-19). “DIY face masks in 10 seconds & improve cheaper masks” is an amusing and useful 4:28 min how-to video. In February, the South China Post circulated a 2-min video of a emergency mask plus face shield made of materials most folks have at home. More sophisticated approaches to masks and face shields come from HP Inc. and their global partners, including in Washington and Oregon. They are mobilizing 3D printing solutions and have made 3D Covid-19 models free to download. |
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