Letter: “Wishing all a wonderful, peaceful and happy Holiday!”
Dear Editor,
As we prepare for the Holiday Season, I want to take time to thank the citizens of Westport for honoring me with their vote and for returning me to the Representative Town Meeting as a District 9 Representative.
I also want to thank the Town employees for their hard work and wish them a safe and happy holiday.
I am so happy to serve my constituents in the District and help make the Town of Westport even more wonderful.
I am looking forward to another productive term doing my best to ensure that my constituents’ needs and concerns are presented and resolved.
Wishing all a wonderful, peaceful and happy Holiday!
Sal Liccione
RTM District 9
Westport COVID-19 Cases Up 34; State Positivity Rate Up while Hospitalizations are Down
The Westport-Weston Health District and the State Department of Public Health reported 34 new COVID-19 cases for Westport over the past 24 hours, totaling 79 cases this week. The State’s daily test positivity rate was up to 8.98% while hospitalizations were down 3 patients, totaling 834 patients across the State.
Westport total positive or probable cases: 2,391 cases.
Westport total COVID-19 Deaths: 32 deaths.
State Daily Test Positivity: 8.98% [up from 6.85%]
State Hospitalizations: 834 patients [-3]
Superintendent: “the recent sharp increase in cases over the past four or five days warrants action”
Westport Public Schools Superintendent Thomas ScariceDear Westport Families,
Throughout the pandemic our community and our schools have been able to flexibly adapt our mitigating measures in order to respond to the changing conditions. Our benchmark has been to continually review our strategies and consider changes every 4-6 weeks, sometimes sooner. However, the recent sharp increase in cases over the past four or five days warrants action.
The district has increased the frequency of reporting cases in direct proportion to the increase in the volume of positive tests. Our weekly screening program, administered yesterday, identified 12 asymptomatic cases. In addition, since this morning, another 18 cases have been reported. The town of Westport has reported 113 cases this week, up from a total of 41 last week.
Nearly all who have tested positive report mild to moderate symptoms. Based on minimal transmission in the school setting compared to the community, we continue to believe that our schools may be one of the safest places for our students to be.
Increase in Mitigating Measures
However, in order to strengthen our measures and keep our students and staff safe, we will take actions to limit activities we believe may contribute to the potential of spread within our schools at this point in time. These measures include the following:
The grade 8 trip to SHS for the Candlelight performance will be cancelled and other opportunities will be explored
Holiday parties in the classroom will continue with an emphasis on social distancing
Effective immediately, parent and school visitors will be restricted from accessing our school buildings through January 7th
Concerts/performances will not be held through January 7th
While we regret having to take these measures just prior to the holiday, it is our hope that this present wave of COVID-19 will subside and our cases will decrease which will allow mitigating measures to be relaxed.
Remote Learning
I have received a couple of inquiries regarding a preemptive move to remote learning. Remote learning is not an option for districts this year. Districts are not permitted to implement remote instruction as a school, or as a district, preemptively like last year. School districts are able to implement continued educational opportunities (i.e. tutoring, remote contact with teachers outside of the classroom, before and after school programs, etc.) for students who must be in COVID-19 isolation or quarantine. This year, school districts are not permitted to implement remote learning. That provision was removed prior to the start of the school year.
Again, based on our data and experience over the past two school years, we continue to maintain a safe environment for our students and staff, with minimal transmission of the virus in our settings, particularly when compared to community transmission rates. Maintaining continued contact with peers and faculty, while attending to the social/emotional needs of our students is critical to their long term mental health and overall wellness.
We will continue to monitor cases throughout our break and provide case updates through our emails. Families are asked to continue to report positive cases through our hotline. Please note that contact tracing will be limited throughout the break.
Respectfully
Thomas Scarice
Superintendent of Schools
Norwalk Aquarium Meerkats Move into New Home “Twice as Large” Just in Time for the Holidays
Contributed photoNorwalk AquariumConnecticut’s only mob of meerkats – the popular family unit in The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk – is moving into a big new exhibit that connects their desert story to the influences of the ocean on climate and weather.
Beginning Dec. 26, The Maritime Aquarium’s meerkats move upstairs into an exhibit twice as large as their original display. The new exhibit replicates the animals’ native African-desert habitat and offers the meerkats many new opportunities for climbing, digging and exploring. Plus, three viewing “bubbles” will give guests the chance to pop up right among the meerkats.
“These are active animals that are very charismatic with highly interesting social structures, so they’re a lot of fun for our guests to follow,” said Barrett Christie, the Aquarium’s Director of Animal Husbandry.
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With the move to the second floor, “Meerkats!” now connects naturally with “Just Add Water,” the Aquarium exhibit that features desert-to-rainforest creatures in explaining how the world ocean drives climates around the globe.
“Incorporating the meerkats into ‘Just Add Water’ opens opportunities to continue and expand our conversation with guests about the role of the ocean in creating and affecting climates – and, thus, also creating and affecting diverse animal habitats – all around the world,” Christie said.
No mere cats, meerkats (Suricata suricatta) are small members of the mongoose family that live in social “mobs” of up to 30 members in the Kalahari Desert, in the southern African nations of Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. (Their desert environment is created by the Benguela Current, an ocean current off Africa’s west coast that brings cool dry winds over the continent.)
Meerkats were widely popularized by the comical sidekick Timon in Disney’s “The Lion King,” and then celebrated in the Animal Planet television series “Meerkat Manor.” They’re fascinating for living in structured, cooperative societies, including a survival strategy where adults take turns individually standing guard – often balanced upright on their haunches – watching for predators while the others forage or sleep.
The Aquarium’s “Meerkats!” exhibit features five sibling meerkats – three males, two females – born at the Hogle Zoo in Utah. The exhibit opened in May 2010 as part of a larger, temporary focus on African species. But the amusing, guest-favorite animals became a permanent fixture, allowing the Aquarium to add a focus on the ocean’s impact on climate for even desert animals like meerkats.
That focus expanded in 2018 with the opening of “Just Add Water,” which features such species as a tamarin (a type of monkey), quail, a skunk, a prehensile-tailed porcupine, caimans, poison dart frogs, and bats. The animals are displayed in separate biomes; that is, distinct communities of plants and animals that have adapted to a defined physical climate. The biomes begin at an arid desert and transition into habitats that receive increasing amounts of annual rainfall – through grasslands and temperate forests, among others – ending at a tropical rain forest.
“These animals’ vastly dissimilar environments are all the product of the ocean’s influence,” Christie said. “The exchange of heat between the ocean and the atmosphere drives much of Earth’s atmospheric circulation. When you factor in currents and winds, you have the ocean helping to create and shape the world’s habitats for wildlife – from desert environments with meerkats to rainforests with monkeys.”
“Meerkats!” and “Just Add Water” are free with Aquarium admission.
Learn more about exhibits, programs and more at www.maritimeaquarium.org.