Friday, 10:30am: Hooray! Our live broadcast stream via internet is back online. We thank our wonderful engineering team who met the technical challenges within hours of the live stream failure Thursday evening. Thanks for everyone’s patience!
Photo thanks to Karen Anderson
Today on Brewocracy Now guest host Taylor Clark and City Manager John Mauro were joined by newly-elected Councilmember Aislinn Diamanti. Among the topics they discussed were: the City’s response to housing needs, adopting codes to make it easier to build small cottages, the recent vacancy of the Development Services Director position, and Councilmember Diamanti’s role with the Fort Worden PDA.
(Airdate: January 12, 2021) Nature Now Host Debaran Kelso is joined by guest Al Latham for a discussion on the Weather of the Olympic Peninsula. This is part 1 of a two-part program.
(Airdate: January 11, 2022) COLIN FODEN: MAKING RADIO DREAMS REALITY. Our Town host Maryanne McNellis interviews Colin Foden, KPTZ co-founder and long-time President & Chairman. Colin joined IBM as a young man. Those tech skills turned out to be easily transferable when he left Northern England and headed for New Zealand. Next it was on to California where he worked for financial giant Pacific Life. He hadn’t been on a college track back in England. But Pacific Life financed his MBA at Pepperdine University. The plot digressed when he and his partner had a baby girl. Soon they were in the proverbial VW van headed up to the Pacific Northwest. He had friends in Port Townsend and soon was part of the community here, serving as the key financial guy at Centrum for several years. But before long he was the single parent of two toddlers. That role clashed with full-time employment so he left Centrum to become a consultant. A chance meeting with a friend at Swains (an institution which folded a few years back) resulted in him joining a small band of idealists devoted to starting a community radio station. The rest is history, as they say. They started the ball rolling in 2007 and by 2011 our own community radio station – KPTZ, 91.9 FM – was up and running. Colin was at the helm as President & Chairman of the Board during KPTZ’s first decade. It hasn’t always been easy.
(Airdate: January 10, 2022) Larry Stein talks with Gary Larson and Will Barrett, two board members of Friends of Fort Worden, a volunteer organization that helps maintain and improve the Fort for all of us. Gary is Communications coordinator, and Will is the head of Trail Team projects, which take on specific maintenance and upgrades for the Fort’s network of trails. Also featured are the two AmeriCorps Service members who work with the Park Rangers, and the Friends of Fort Worden. They plan to be leading some interpretative Nature Walks in the Spring and Summer, in addition to their maintenance work on trails.
The following is a summary of the presentation during the Public Health briefings at this week’s Board of County Commissioners meeting made by Jefferson and Clallam County Public Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry. Also Willie Bence, Director, Director of Emergency Management, gave a report. The summary below was provided by and used with the permission of Jefferson County Government.
In today’s address, Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry said the healthcare system is experiencing shortages of beds, shortages of staff and shortages of tests and medications. She urged individuals to get vaccinated, wear a mask and limit social contacts for the next few weeks – especially limiting the amount of time spent indoors with others. She said traveling by air is not a good idea at the moment and that supporting restaurants by ordering take-out or eating outside is preferable to indoor dining. “If you are fully vaccinated, you are well protected against the worst of COVID-19,” she said. “We’re seeing good protection against hospitalization for the folks who are fully vaccinated and even better protection for those who are boosted. So it really does still make a huge difference.” She suggested upgrading your mask, using well-fitted KN95 or N-95 masks. The county has a supply of these models and they be distributing them through local businesses, grocery stores and schools. “The very best mask you can wear is the on that you will wear continuously, “ Dr. Berry said.
In her weekly Commissioners address, Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry predicted that Jefferson will reach peak COVID-19 transmission at the end of January, with peak hospitalizations through mid-February. Dr. Berry said the COVID-19 news for this week is “not good,” with incredibly rapid rises in cases throughout the country. The Omicron variant is “incredibly contagious and a lot of us will contract it in the next couple weeks.” In Jefferson, cases are rising rapidly. She said our case rate is 795 per 100,000, which is the highest it has been. As of today, there 125 new cases for a total of 1,825 cases, with five people hospitalized. Forty of those new cases are in the Olympic Corrections Center in West Jefferson County. Nationally, cases are up 215%, with 650,000 cases reported each day and hospitalizations up 80%. “As crazy as these numbers sound right now, we anticipate that they will be worse for the next couple of weeks and the strain on our healthcare system will be worse for actually even longer,” she said.
Submit your Public Health questions to Dr. Allison Berry and Willie Bence by emailing [email protected]. Note: The weekly deadline for these to be submitted is on Fridays at noon, to be answered at the following meeting (Tuesday, January 18, due to the MLK holiday).
Since 1999, Jumping Mouse Children’s Center has helped kids heal through expressive mental health therapy. In the Center’s warm, homelike environment, children confront past and present hurts and discover lasting resolutions. In this edition of Community Tides, KPTZ’s Chris Bricker and co-host Siobhan Canty, President and CEO of Jefferson Community Foundation, talk with Kimberly Gorman, in her new role as Executive Director of Jumping Mouse, and Jean Scarboro, Clinical Director. We’ll learn about their important work, and how our local children are faring in these trying times.
