In today’s Patreon-fueled shout-out:
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On today’s show:
Albemarle Supervisors to spend more on rural broadband initiatives
Supervisors also agree to further review of the homestay ordinance
An update from the UVA Health System on the latest in the pandemic
A database error has prevented a specific number of new COVID cases from being reported by the Virginia Department of Health. Assume they’ve gone up since Friday.
This morning, the Food and Drug Administration fully approved the use of Pfizer vaccine, removing the emergency use tag that has been in place. Dr. Costi Sifri welcomed the move. He’s the director of hospital epidemiology at the University of Virginia Health System.
“We’ve all been waiting for this day and are very excited to see that full approval has been granted,” Dr. Sifri said. “We know that there are some people in our community who were waiting for that, that felt that full approval was needed before they felt entirely comfortable with the vaccine despite the fact that I think it’s been clear that the vaccine has been safe and effective for months and months now.”
Dr. Sifri said this may mean that more institutions will feel more comfortable requiring vaccinations. One such entity is the U.S. Department of Defense, which will not make vaccinations mandatory.
There are still no approved vaccines for children under 12, but work is underway toward that effort.
“Those clinical trials are going on right now by Pfizer and Moderna and we’ve heard we may start to hear some results of those studies as soon as September,” Dr. Sifri said.
Another new vaccine development that Dr. Sifri said might come in September is guidance on whether those who took the Johnson and Johnson would benefit from a second shot.
The UVA Health System is also placing more restrictions on visitors to its medical facilities beginning on Thursday.
“For in-patients, two designated visitors can be identified by the patient,” said Bush Bell, the administrator of hospitality and support services. “They must remain the same for the duration of the patient’s stay.”
Only one visitor will be allowed for out-patient procedures as well as emergency room visits.
“And as always, patients who are being evaluated for COVID or are positive will not be permitted visitors unless they are pediatric patients or adults with special needs,” Bell said.
The rest of our stories today come from the Albemarle County Board of Supervisor’s meeting from August 16, 2021.
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled earlier this month that the Federal Communications Commission must provide more information about why it has not updated its policies on the potential health effects of mobile phones and the towers that allow them to communicate.
The court ruled on August 13 that the F.C.C. must give further justification for a claim that its current regulations are sufficient to "protect against harmful effects of exposure to radiofrequency radiation unrelated to cancer." (read the ruling)
The Environmental Health Trust and others had sued the F.C.C. for failing to adequately explain why a process to update rules last adopted in 1996 was abandoned.
The ruling directs the FCC to provide a "reasoned explanation" for why it continues to base testing procedures for cell phones on 25-year-old guidelines from 1996, to address the health effects of radiofrequency radiation on children in a world where cell phones are ubiquitous, and to address the impacts of radiofrequency radiation on the environment.
Supervisor Ann Mallek raised the issue during consideration of a cell tower on county-owned land at Walnut Creek Park.
"Should we be stopping accepting more and more of this possibly non-compliant [towers] when the rules get straightened out?" Mallek asked. "Wouldn't it be sensible to have the rules straightened out first before we have more things that are put up in the county that we then have to deal with after the fact?"
County Attorney Greg Kamptner explained that the F.C.C. halted their review of those guidelines in 2019.
"And that process could have ultimately resulted in updated regulations pertaining to the radiofrequency standards," Kamptner said. "The court also made it clear that it was not making any decision on the viability of the 1996 standard."
As a result, Kamptner said the ruling does not affect current applications. In this case, the matter before the Board was whether County Executive Jeffrey Richardson should sign the application from Verizon.
"It also doesn't affect the federal law preemption of state and local governments from considering radiofrequency emissions in their wireless related decisions and their regulations," Kamptner said.
Mallek was the lone vote against the resolution to authorize Richardson to sign off on the application.
You’re reading Charlottesville Community Engagement. Interested in the history of the public library system in the area? This subscriber-supported public service announcement urges you to consider tuning Wednesday in to the next edition of the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society’s next video presentation, which is the second part of a look at the The Local Library Centennial: When does "Public" become Public?
Filmmaker Lorenzo Dickerson and Jefferson Madison Regional Library director David Plunkett return to talk about how many of the anniversary projects they talked about in January have now been realized! Exhibits created by the ACHS commemorating the 100-year anniversary of the Public Library system have been installed on the 3rd floor of JMRL’s Central Branch. Learn more by watching this live event or by visiting albemarlehistory.org. (register on Zoom) (Facebook Live)
Supervisors also got an update on how Albemarle’s staff proposes to use the remaining balance of the American Rescue Plan Act funding the county will get in the current and next calendar years.
In all, Albemarle will receive $21.2 million in ARPA funds from the federal government. In June, the Board of Supervisors approved a framework for how to spend it. That includes $4 million for support for human services and economic development, an initial $3 million for broadband initiatives, and the balance for capital budget and fiscal planning for upcoming budget years.
Nelsie Birch is Albemarle’s chief financial officer.
“We will be making a recommendation to increase the funding from ARPA to support our broadband efforts,” Birch said.
Specifically, staff recommended using an additional $1.5 million in the ARPA balance to cover the local match for potential projects funded through the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative (VATI). Supervisors approved the idea and awards from the state program will be made in January. Mike Culp is the head of the newly created Broadband Accessibility and Affordability Office.
“This VATI session we’re going to have at least it seems like 60 to maybe 100 applications so it just goes to show the Commonwealth is really taking a good look at this and they’re going to be funding a lot more programs this year so let’s be in that bucket,” Culp said.
Last week, Albemarle released $800,000 of that human services funding for the emergency financial assistance program.
There have been many requests for Albemarle to follow Charlottesville in using local ARPA funding to hire attorneys to represent people who are going to be evicted. Albemarle has so far not committed that funding. Emily Kilroy, the county’s director of communications and public engagement, said Albemarle is covered under the extension of the national moratorium on evictions. She also said the county’s approach has been direct payments to those with demonstrated needs.
“The Emergency Financial Assistance program that ran from June 2020 through June 2021 provided direct funding to support rent and mortgage payments,” Kilroy sent in an email. “This program was able to serve 2,653 residents, and approximately $2 million of federal CARES Coronavirus Relief Funds were distributed, primarily for rent/mortgage payments.”
As mentioned, another $800,000 in funding has been made available.
Later that afternoon, Albemarle had a work session on the future of the homestay ordinance, which regulates transient lodging such as AirBnB in the county. The current rules were adopted in 2019 and were intended in part to make sure those who are renting out their homes are complying with regulations.
“The number of non-compliant new listings is declining so our message is getting out,” said zoning administrator Bart Svoboda.
Svoboda said county staff wanted to know if certain changes should be made to the ordinance. One current regulation is that houses and structures being used for transient lodging are setback at least 125 feet away from a property, unless the Board grants a special exception.
“The 125 foot setback reduction is by far our most sought after special exception,” Svoboda said. “Forty-two have been submitted, 29 have been approved, and we still have ten pending.”
The Board agreed to allow staff to make changes to the ordinance to allow for administrative approval of those special exceptions. Svoboda said that would depend on whether sufficient screening was present as well as other factors.
Other changes might be to change the rule that requires rural area property owners to live in the structure they rent out. Svoboda said he will return to the Board with details about those possible changes after the beginning of calendar year 2022.
Supervisors also agreed to continue hiring a third-party to assist with inspection. For more details on this issue, read Allison Wrabel’s story in the Daily Progress.
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August 23, 2021: UVa Health to restrict hospital visitors beginning Thursday; Albemarle Supervisors agreed to homestay setback change, more funding for broadband