WSAZ News Staff

Game of the Week: Staunton vs. Fort Defiance (1/22/21)

Dukes visit Northeastern this weekend

H.S. Basketball Highlights: Friday, January 22

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STAUNTON, Va. (WHSV) — “This week, to see the kids come back, to see the looks on the teacher’s faces, to see the children so excited to be back in school, I’ve been borderline euphoric,” Staunton City Schools Superintendent Garett Smith said. This week, Staunton City Schools (SCS) brought students back in a hybrid learning model for all who wanted to participate. After sending a survey out to parents and families, about 70 percent opted for the hybrid model and the other 30 percent chose to remain virtual. “We know that when we’re practicing mitigation strategies effectively, then there’s very low transmission inside of schools, ” Smith explained. “That was the very big difference-maker.” The district started the year with two weeks of virtual learning, and on Tuesday, those who opted for the hybrid schedule came back to the classroom. “Families still have the option to be virtual. If staff have some specific circumstances that make it more dangerous for them to be in school, then we are working with them on a case by case basis through our human resources department. We understand that, and we are trying to accommodate everybody to make sure they feel safe and comfortable,” Smith said. Read more about the learning models in Staunton City Schools by clicking here.

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - As school employees streamed into the Berglund Center Friday, Governor Ralph Northam toured the vaccination clinic. And he took the measure of an operation organized by the local health districts and Carilion Clinic. “This has really been a team effort,” Northam told reporters. Northam said the state now has the system in place to deliver the COVID-19 vaccine, if it can acquire adequate supplies. “And so now what we need is more doses,” Northam said. “Virginia is getting about 105,000 doses a week. It’s nowhere near where we need to be, so we’re in communication with Washington.” Northam said the goal is to deliver 50,000 doses a day in Virginia, but that will require substantially more vaccine than the Commonwealth is receiving right now. “What we would like to see is by early to mid-summer, that all Virginians have been vaccinated,” Northam said. “And finally, we can get our children back in school safely. We can get our businesses back up and running and we can return to a near normal life.” Northam also said he supports emergency legislation that should help increase the pool of health professionals who can administer vaccines, and provide more locations where mass vaccination clinics could be held. He said he’s hopeful the bill will reach his desk in a few days.

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - Governor Ralph Northam said a limited supply will continue challenging the vaccination process in Virginia. Despite that, health districts continue to move forward with the supply they have. As of Friday, January 22, the Central Shenandoah Health District and its health care partners are distributing 3,400 vaccinesevery week around most of the Shenandoah Valley, which Laura Lee Wight, a health district spokesperson, said is not a lot. The CSHD is working to expand its vaccine capacity so that when more vaccines are available, they are ready for distribution. For those who already received a shot in Phase 1a or 1b, you will need a second shot three to four weeks later depending on which vaccine you got. The CSHD is using Moderna vaccines, which require 28 days between doses. Wight said when someone gets their first shot, the CSHD has a second match dose available. “Those second doses are in our planning considerations when we get our shipments and that is the situation at the Central Shenandoah Health District at the moment,” Wight said. “Of course, things are subject to change, but at the moment that is the situation here.” Wight said a few days after people receive their first dose from the district, they will receive an email prompting them to register for their second dose. She said their online portal only shows dates 28 days away. Wight said if you have access to the internet, check out their website to see if your questions are answered there before calling. The CSHD wants to leave those phone lines open for people in the Valley who are not tech-savvy or without internet. For more information from the Central Shenandoah Health District on vaccines, click here.

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - A group in the Shenandoah Valley is raising money to help those without a home have access to a public restroom. The Shenandoah Socialist Collective has a goal to add a portable toilet and handwashing station somewhere in downtown Harrisonburg. The only low-barrier shelter in the city is Open Doors, which shelters guests overnight, but leaves them unsheltered for 12 hours during the day and with the COVID-19 pandemic, getting access to public facilities can be difficult for those experiencing homelessness. “They rely on a network that is often businesses that have been impacted by COVID or places like the library that needs to limit capacity,” Haley Springer said. “Folks who during the day don’t have anywhere else to go and when you need a bathroom and there’s not one for miles around, that’s an emergency, so we’re out here trying to do something about that.” Springer started a GoFundMe donation page for a Harrisonburg restroom, but she said acquiring one is not the long-term goal. She wants the City of Harrisonburg to step up and provide public restrooms and a low-barrier shelter that is open during the day. “This is not a new problem,” Springer said. “It’s been something the city debated for a long time, whether or not there’s enough money or support for it, but somehow there always seems to be millions of dollars in the budget for police and jails.” As of January 22, more than $3,100 was raised in only two days. Springer said they are not waiting on approval from a vacant lot in downtown Harrisonburg where the public facilities can go. For more information on the GoFundMe page, click here.

Randy Doyle of the National Propane Gas Association voices concerns over the push for renewable energy. On Thursday, Jan. 21, we spoke with Climate Action Alliance of the Valley. To see that interview, click here: https://www.whsv.com/2021/01/22/1on1-what-it-means-as-biden-rejoins-climate-agreement/

Jon Decker is the White House correspondent for Gray Television, the parent company of WHSV. Decker spoke with WHSV’s Kyle Rogers about President Biden’s first days of office and how an impeachment trial of the former president could have an impact on the Biden administration.

House Democrats are ready to send Trump's impeachment to the Senate. Karin Caifa looks at what that means for the trial timeline

Page County, Va. (WHSV) — Friday afternoon, U.S. 340 was backed up for miles in both directions, as many people were trying to receive a COVID-19 vaccine at Page County High School. Bumper to bumper, cars moved slowly into the parking lots of the middle and high school as the Page County Sheriff’s Office guided drivers on where to receive the vaccine. “Well the traffic, it wasn’t bad until I got here,” Barbara Meadows, a resident of Page County, laughed. Meadows said she felt lucky by coming from the town of Shenandoah — she only spent 40 minutes waiting to get to the school entrance, while others who came from the Town of Stanley said they waited up to two hours. “I wish I had known about it sooner. I just hope I can get there and get my shot today,” Meadows said. Because there was no published guidance on who was eligible to receive the vaccine other than age, some people came from as far as Central Virginia. “We can’t get any questions answered. Chesterfield County is very behind, very bad, and Virginia’s behind,” Bob Lohr, a resident of Chesterfield County said. “Page County is way ahead of them.” Lohr said he learned of the vaccination clinic because his family lives in the area. At 80 years old, he said his family is very concerned for his health and said he’s had issues receiving the vaccine in Chesterfield. Dr. Colin Green, with the Lord Fairfax Health District, told WHSV 1,451 shots were administered on Friday. After 1 p.m., the sheriff’s office began to detour drivers when the health department said the clinic has closed down. With no word yet on when another clinic will pop up, everyone in line on Friday had the same hope that this would help return us to some type of normalcy. “I don’t go visiting or anything so it’s been lonely,” Meadows said. “It’s nothing like I’ve seen in my entire life.”

ELKTON, Va. (WHSV) -At a town council meeting this past Tuesday, Elkton leaders decided the Elkton Area Community Center and the Town Hall will be closed until February 19th due to high COVID-19 case numbers for the town. Town Manager, Greg Lunsford, said case numbers in the area have been rising significantly in the last few weeks. “One of the things is we really have to protect our staff as well because we have to keep the essential town functions of public works, police, treasurer’s office, and keep those things operating. And we’ve been hit really hard on the staff level,” Lunsford said. Lunsford said of the 30 full time town employees, 12 are in quarantine and 5 have tested positive. He says the next two weeks will be used for deep cleaning the community center while it is empty and that the buildings are set to open in a month, but the closure could be extended. “We would love to be able to open these facilities again and get our community back in, but safety and caution for our staff and our residents has to come first,” Lunsford said. While the buildings are closed, utility payments can be placed in the drop box outside of the Town Hall, mailed in, or paid online at the Town’s website.

STAUNTON, Va. (WHSV) — “This week, to see the kids come back, to see the looks on the teacher’s faces, to see the children so excited to be back in school, I’ve been borderline euphoric,” Staunton City Schools Superintendent Garett Smith said. This week, Staunton City Schools (SCS) brought students back in a hybrid learning model for all who wanted to participate. After sending a survey out to parents and families, about 70 percent opted for the hybrid model and the other 30 percent chose to remain virtual. “We know that when we’re practicing mitigation strategies effectively, then there’s very low transmission inside of schools, ” Smith explained. “That was the very big difference-maker.” The district started the year with two weeks of virtual learning, and on Tuesday, those who opted for the hybrid schedule came back to the classroom. “Families still have the option to be virtual. If staff have some specific circumstances that make it more dangerous for them to be in school, then we are working with them on a case by case basis through our human resources department. We understand that, and we are trying to accommodate everybody to make sure they feel safe and comfortable,” Smith said. Read more about the learning models in Staunton City Schools by clicking here.

AUGUSTA COUNTY, Va. (WHSV) — The Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which was proposed to be a 600 mile, high pressure, natural gas transmission line, and would run through West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina, was canceled on July 5, 2020. About six months later, Dominion has filed a restoration plan for the damage that was done by pipeline construction. While Nancy Sorrells, the Augusta County representative for the Alliance for the Shenandoah Valley, believes things are heading in the right direction, she said there is still a lot that is up in the air. Sorrells wants clarification on how Dominion will fix things, like what will happen with people’s land that was taken for pipeline construction. “There’s still 600 miles of land that is locked up that owners can’t do with the land what they want because it’s under all these restrictions from Dominion,” Sorrells said. Dominion did pay landowners for the easements that they took, but Sorrells thinks people should have the opportunity to get that land back. “Release those people from their easements, and even if they have to come up with some deal where the people pay pennies back on the dollar to get their rights back, they should have the opportunity to do that,” Sorrells said. There were also trees that were taken down for about one-third of the pipeline. Sorrells said about half of those trees are still laying on the ground, and Dominion needs to figure out what they will do with those trees and how they’re going to compensate the landowners for that destruction. There is also pipe that was already placed underground. “Dominion has said that rather than rip up the ground twice, the pipe will just be in there and just be abandoned,” Sorrells said. And there were historic stonewalls in eastern Augusta County that were displaced that Sorrells said needs to be addressed as well. “We need to be vigilant, and make sure that as we go forward that all of the Is are dotted and the Ts are crossed and that we get ourselves back to where we were before or even better,” Sorrells said. Sorrells said people can expect the restoration process to take a few years because there are so many things that need to be addressed. Owners of the Stuarts Draft Farm Market were excited to see a greenhouse now being built where the pipeline would have gone through. “Provide local jobs and local revenue for our area that will stay here in our area,” Virginia Davis, owner, said. The greenhouse construction still does have to abide by where the easements are on that land, but Davis said hearing the greenhouse construction is more comforting because she says it’s for a good cause that will benefit the community. “It’s a complementary business for the area to have a greenhouse that’s family-owned,” Davis said.

AUGUSTA COUNTY, Va. (WHSV) — Starting Jan. 26, anyone flying into the U.S. will be required to show a negative COVID-19 test within three days before the flight, according to new CDC guidelines. While flights to the Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport do not come directly from out of the country, it does get international passengers through connecting flights. “Most of our travel right now in the last nine months has been domestic. There has been some international, but a lot of international service was pulled back by the airlines, so we’re not seeing quite as many international passengers as we are domestic these days,” Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport Executive Director Greg Campbell said. Campbell added that the new guidelines go along with efforts they’ve been taking locally to keep passengers safe, like routine cleaning, wearing masks and increasing distance among people. “We encourage that, and that’s the advantage of flying for this airport. You do have the ability to that space. It’s not as crowded, and you can adequately distance a little bit easier here than you can in some of the larger airports,” Campbell said. The CDC also recommends getting tested again three to five days after arrival and staying home for a week after travel. Campbell added that people should check CDC and TSA websites before traveling, even if just domestically, for updates on any changes.

Student Athlete of the Week - Madi Reeser (Fort Defiance)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that she will send the article of impeachment against Donald Trump to the Senate on Monday.