Today’s installment comes to you thanks to the Charlottesville Podcasting Network. Bringing you audio from the community since 2005, and getting ready for another 15 years and beyond.
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There are another 902 cases of COVID-19 reported in Virginia today, above the seven-day average of 862 new cases per day. In the Thomas Jefferson Health District there are another 35 cases, and the seven-day average for new daily cases is now at 40.
The University of Virginia’s COVID-19 official tracker added another 15 cases yesterday, and lists 221 active cases. That’s defined as “new cases with a positive test during the past ten days” and these numbers only cover tests “administered or provided through UVA.”
The tracker did not alter the number of isolation and quarantine rooms in use. There were still listed as seven percent and 26 percent respectively.
On Tuesday morning, residents of the Hancock dorm were ordered to participate in prevalence testing according to an article in the Cavalier Daily. Later that day, President Jim Ryan imposed a five-person or less gathering limit.
“Testing residence halls is part of our ongoing asymptomatic prevalence testing program,” said UVA spokesman Brian Coy. “In some cases that’s in response to a known uptick in cases in a residence hall, in some cases it’s wastewater indications or some other factor.”
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The Virginia Department of Health also monitors water quality in the state’s rivers and lakes. An advisory remains in place for the Middle Pamunkey Branch of Lake Anna due to the ongoing presence of a harmful algae bloom. However, an advisory for the Upper North Anna Branch has been lifted due to water samples that show levels of algae have dropped to safer levels. According to a release, “some harmful algae, called cyanobacteria, can cause skin rash and gastrointestinal illnesses, such as upset stomach, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.” (VDH release)
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Operations at branches of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library are supported by a group called the Friends of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library which raises funds for books, equipment, and other essentials for a successful system. However, the pandemic has meant the main event has not been possible to put on. Peter Manno is the manager of the Friends of the Library.
“What we’ve had for over 50 years are some pretty well renowned and wonderful book sales that now are spring and fall, for a long time they were spring only, and that is 90 percent of our funding,” Manno said. “The libraries closed down just two weeks before our traditional spring sale.”
That has meant that the basement of the Gordon Avenue Library has been filled with books donated by members of the community. The fall sale has also been canceled, but Manno said the Friends have held two Pop Up Sales and will have another this one Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Gordon Avenue Library.
“It’s a big change from our usual book sale where you would come in and you would browse the books, handling them, they would be individually priced on the inside,” Manno said. “Obviously that’s not going to fly for safety reasons.”
Instead, volunteers have pre-packaged and sealed bags with at least five books from a specific genre for $5 a bag.
“For this sale coming up we have mystery, literary fiction, popular fiction, sci-fi/fantasy, biographies, young adult books, and books for preschool aged kids, pre-literate kids, picture books fundamentally,” Manno said, adding that the first two sales exceeded expectations.
The Friends of the Library have not been accepting new books since March, but Manno said they may be able to do so in the future. Visit the library website for more information.
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Tonight, Live Arts continues its Forging Ahead Season with two short plays that will be livestreamed beginning at 8 p.m. The Locally Sourced series consists of material created by members of the Live Arts Playwrights Lab, and will be made available without a ticket. The theater company asks that people contribute what they can or purchase a season pass. For a list of what’s on tonight, visit the Live Arts website.
In meetings today, the Places29-Rio Community Advisory Committee meets at 6 p.m. They will see the same presentations from Jim Heilman of the Electoral Board and Brad Sheffield of Jaunt on that agency’s ideas for on-demand transit. (meeting info)
September 24, 2020: Jefferson-Madison Regional Library Friends pivot to pop-up sales