Local COVID-19 case count grows; municipal offices close to public; testing site expands hours
November 21, 2020 | By Lisa Scagliotti 
Waterbury Ambulance Service member Dave Cutler administers a COVID-19 test at the new drive-though testing site at the ambulance headquarters on Guptil Road in Waterbury Center. Photo by Gordon Miller.
UPDATE: This story was updated with Nov. 21 daily COVID-19 case and death totals from the Vermont Department of Health.
Waterbury is seeing stepped-up efforts to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic this week with a new testing site opened in Waterbury Center and municipal officials taking steps to curb the spread of the virus and help property owners struggling to pay their taxes.
New data released Friday by the Vermont Department of Health showed an increase of 8 new cases in Waterbury between Nov. 11-18 bringing the total for the town to 31, up from 23 on Nov. 11. Duxbury still has had zero cases reported since the start of the pandemic in March.
Waterbury Ambulance Service on Monday opened the new testing site at its headquarters at 1727 Guptil Road near the town highway garage and hours there will be expanding starting next week. It is the first of a series of new daily testing sites the state is contracting to open with a goal of every Vermonter being within a 30-minute drive of a COVID-19 test. Other sites being opened this week are in Burlington, Middlebury, Brattleboro and Rutland, state officials said at Tuesday’s briefing with Gov. Phil Scott.
Meanwhile town officials are adjusting their operations to close the Municipal Center to the public. Duxbury Town Clerk Maureen Harvey announced Friday that the town office there will also close to the public for two weeks. Waterbury Public Library has stopped in-person visits from patrons, shifting to curbside service, phone calls, and online programming.
At Monday night’s Waterbury Select Board meeting, Municipal Manager Bill Shepeluk shared details from a Zoom video call just prior where Scott administration members met with local officials from Washington and Orange county communities. The two counties are now at the center of the most rapid spread of the virus, surpassing the more populous Chittenden County in the past week.
“Things in Washington and Orange county are pretty dicey right now. They are trying to put a cap on it so the situation in these two counties does not spread to the other 12 counties of the state,” Shepeluk said.
The case data back up that concern. For the past several weeks, the pace of new cases recorded in Washington County has led the state. As of Friday, Washington County has recorded 351 new cases in the past 14 days compared with 245 in Chittenden County.
Shepeluk said Central Vermont counties have at least 50 “situations” that state health staff are monitoring. “Dr. [Mark] Levine places the blame squarely on parties and social gatherings that happened at Halloween in particular and of course the outbreak that started at the skating rink in Montpelier,” Shepeluk told the select board, referring to the state Health Commissioner. He was referring to the spread of COVID-19 cases to multiple communities across Vermont including dozens at St. Michael’s College in Colchester stemming from contact through carpooling and socializing in conjunction with recreational hockey.
The spread of the virus through such casual social settings including dinner parties, baby showers and even hunting camps let Gov. Scott to announce new restrictions on Nov. 13 closing bars and prohibiting social gatherings of individuals from different households.
By Tuesday this week Vermont had surpassed 3,000 COVID-19 cases and Gov. Phil Scott made his strongest pleas to date for Vermonters to heed public health guidance while also acknowledging how difficult that will be heading into the holiday season.
“Parties and cookouts, hanging out with people just to socialize, may be fun, but these things are ‘wants’ not ‘needs’ and they put a lot of people at risk,” the governor said. “I’m hoping by laying out what’s at stake, it will motivate Vermonters to follow this guidance so we can get back together again soon, and safely.”
State officials continue to stress that while there have been cases reported among people who work in schools, precautions such as strict mask-wearing and distancing measures have managed to keep the virus from spreading in schools. As a result a top goal continues to be keeping schools open to have the greatest benefit to children and learning.
More than 70 percent of the new cases in the past weeks, however, stem from gatherings where people remove masks and congregate with others in close proximity. That was the basis for the current state ban on social gatherings from different households whether indoors or outside.
Dr. Mark Levine, Vermont’s Health Commissioner, read a message from a state contact tracing leader that plainly explains how one becomes – and can avoid becoming – a “close contact” of someone who as COVID-19. Read the full message from Monical Talbot Ogelby of Waterbury here.
Gov. Scott made a point to address “the skeptics” who reject wearing masks or question the seriousness of the pandemic. “The number of people in hospitals is growing because some care more about what they want to do rather than what they need to do to help protect others, keep kids in school, keep people working and prevent the healthcare system from being overwhelmed to the point where care is being delivered in makeshift hospitals,” Scott said.
He acknowledged that he may not be able to change some minds. “But please don’t call it patriotic or pretend it’s about freedom. Because real patriots serve and sacrifice for all, whether they agree with them or not. Patriots also stand up and fight when our nation’s health and security is threatened, and right now, our country and way of life is being attacked by this virus, not the protections we put in place.”
Waterbury COVID-19 testing site
Waterbury Ambulance Service goes into its second week running a new COVID-19 testing site at the ambulance facility, 1727 Guptil Road. It will be open 7 days a week with hours daily, including weekends. Hours Sat. and Sun. this weekend: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. This week, Monday, Tuesday, Friday: 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Closed Wednesday. Thanksgiving, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Left to right: Waterbury Ambulance Service members Moriah Keat, Dave Cutler and Caitlyn Couture prep testing supplies. Photo by Gordon Miller.
The biggest local development related to COVID-19 is the free testing site now running seven days a week at the Waterbury Ambulance Service headquarters in Waterbury Center. Executive Director Mark Podgwaite said they tested more than 60 individuals in five hours on Monday and by Friday approximately 400 had been tested.
The site will be open seven days a week with the exception of Wednesday, Nov. 25, when it will be closed due to the holiday closure for the lab it uses. There will be testing available on Thanksgiving day, however, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Podgwaite said.
Aside from the holiday, new daily hours starting Monday, Nov. 23, will be 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. six days a week. Wednesday hours will be 5-8 p.m.
Tests are conducted in a drive-through format and preregistration is required. To sign up, visit the Vermont Department of Health’s webpage online at healthvermont.gov/covid-19/testing/where-get-tested.
Ambulance members will be paid to staff the testing site and the contract for it does not have an end date. “We will be in operation until we’re not needed any longer,” Podgwaite said.
Cases growing across the nation, region and state
The trend in Vermont and the region mirror the overall nationwide dramatic spread of the virus. U.S. cases have exceeded 12 million as of today with more than 254,000 deaths, according to Centers for Disease Control data. Daily deaths nationwide exceeded 1,900 on Friday.
Vermont recorded four new COVID-related deaths this week bringing the state total to 63 and daily case counts have hit new highs reaching just shy of 150, according to the Vermont Department of Health. Friday’s new case count was 146; today’s was lower at 88.
Town-specific data in Vermont continues to be reported weekly with a two-day lag. State officials this week said they will look to modify that process to provide more timely reports as case growth has increased.
This week’s town-by-town map updated on Friday, Nov. 20, has data as of Nov. 18. The map shows a cumulative count of cases since March 5. Waterbury is listed with 31 cases, up 8 from the previous week’s total of 23. Some notes on nearby communities: Duxbury and Fayston have zero reported cases; Stowe saw an increase of 7 cases this week for a total of 33; Waitsfield and Middlesex each added 4 new cases this week for totals of 9 and 11 respectively; Warren added 3 cases for a total of 8. Moretown and Bolton are still listed in the lowest category with 1-5 cases.
Property taxes and town offices
Considering the surge of cases in the region and after hearing the briefing for local officials, Shepeluk Monday evening told the Waterbury Select Board that the municipal offices will shift to have as many staff as possible working from home for the next several weeks.
New state guidelines for workplaces urge as many workers as possible to work from home. The Waterbury municipal offices have only been open to the public by appointment since the summer.
On Friday, Barbara Farr, the town emergency management coordinator, said town staff would be available by phone and email. Those with essential requests for land records and materials in the town vault should contact Town Clerk Carla Lawrence for assistance. All public meetings will be conducted via video conferencing.
Shepeluk said there are no plans to cut staff hours or for layoffs but, “I can’t rule that out in the future if this persists.”
The select board Monday also took a step to ease the financial pinch on taxpayers who didn’t make their property tax payments by the Nov. 13 deadline.
Shepeluk told the select board Monday night that approximately 140 taxpayers failed to pay by the 4:30 p.m. deadline leaving the collection short by just over $700,000 out of some $15 million that was billed.
That is more than twice the delinquent taxes in November 2019, Shepeluk said, when all but about $340,000 came in by the deadline. He noted however that the number of taxpayers failing to pay was less than last year when 155 failed to pay on time, indicating that they represent larger and/or more valuable property.
Not knowing specifically why taxpayers were late, town officials were left to speculate. “COVID has to be a big player in this situation,” Shepeluk said.
Keeping with practices earlier this year as the municipality has waived other fees and payments associated with water and sewer bills and business development loans, Shepeluk recommended that the board ease the burden on those who failed to make their tax payments. Prior to 2020, the town would assess a penalty of 8% on late payments and charge interest of 1% per month through the end of the calendar year, increasing interest to 1.5% per month in January. Shepeluk added that outstanding tax revenue should not put the town in a cash-flow crunch going forward.
After much discussion, the board voted unanimously to cut the penalty to 4% of what was owed and to hold off on charging interest until April 2021.
Board member Mike Bard said he was expecting the tax payment news to be more dire following the payment deadline. “I think Waterbury people stepped up,” he said.