Community Updates for week of 8/8/2022

February 3, 2023

Update to Residents 8/9/2022

Coffee Hour

Coffee Hour will be on Wednesday, August 10, at 9:30 AM in the Fox & Fell. As of press time, we plan to be in person but will also offer the opportunity to join via KOTV and Zoom: https://kendal-org.zoom.us/j/87479090692. (That’s Meeting ID 874 7909 0692.) We will have an online poll for those joining by Zoom to gather opinions on current matters of interest.

The New Website Moves Ahead

Testing is progressing on the new KORA website. Some features couldn’t be tested until the site moves to its permanent location, kaores.org. The site will be moved Tuesday evening and should be available to look at on Wednesday. Some features will not be available until later, however. Meanwhile the “old” KORA website, kaores.net, is still available. If you want to take an early peek at the new site, you need to sign in with your username (lastname.firstname—taylor.tom, for example). You will be prompted to create a password. Please bear in mind that much is still under construction. The new website won’t be considered truly live until all features have been tested and training is available. Stay tuned for more info!

Polling Stations Turnout – How did Kendal do?

Chronicle Telegram reported on Aug. 5 partial article quoted here. Please know that we had only five outside voters come into Kendal to vote on Election Day.

    …Most polling stations remained fairly empty throughout Election Day, especially with 1,953 people choosing to vote absentee by mail and another 2,432 voting in person during early voting hours. Interestingly, Oberlin was home to both the busiest voting locations and the slowest in Lorain County, when measured per capita. Without Oberlin College students on campus in force, the city’s 8th precinct had turnout of just 0.72 percent. But it was rivaled by many other “normal” precincts countywide, where just 1 percent to 3 percent of voters took part. Meanwhile, Oberlin’s 2nd precinct was abuzz with balloting, for 32.84 percent turnout. Adams said voting machines returned to Kendal at Oberlin on the city’s north side for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and residents there and in the surrounding neighborhoods are extremely politically active.  …As a precaution early in the pandemic, Kendal was closed to the public. Last year, voting for its residents moved to New Russia Township Lodge.

US Mail Delivery Time

The US Post Office is having some staffing issues. Hence the US Mail delivery time has been a bit inconsistent lately. Mail is typically delivered mid-day. But lately, sometimes it does not come until late afternoon. We are all eager for it to arrive, but please be patient. Our mail delivery person is currently working several routes!

High Heat-Index Days Reminder

We all need to pay attention to the daily heat index. The temperature may not be 90 degrees, but the heat index may feel like it. Heat exhaustion can happen quickly on these hot and humid August days. Plan to stay hydrated—cold water is your best beverage as caffeinated iced tea and sodas are diuretics. Take plenty of breaks back inside with air conditioning, too. Enjoy these fleeting summer days, but don’t forget to take the necessary measures to protect yourself so they don’t harm you…and read on:  

An Email Scam is Making the Rounds

During the last week or two an email with the subject of “Catching Up” was received by several residents and staff members here using a well-known resident’s email. I have received several calls about it and the resident whose email account was hacked has already contacted her email provider for assistance along with our very helpful Director of IT & Accounting, Judy Miller, to get it resolved. If you receive this email, please do not respond to it—just delete it. – Toni Merleno, Risk Manager

Women’s Equality Day

Women’s Equality Day will be celebrated on Friday, August 26, 11:30 am to 1:30 pm, at the Elyria YWCA. A Kendal Bus will take and return you. The Keynote Speaker will be Laura Irvin of Moms Demand Action: Make America THINK Again – A Common Sense Gun Discussion.  To register, write a check to LWVOA (League of Women Voters Oberlin Area) for $15 and put into Box # 157.  Write “Reg” or “Veg” in the memo line to indicate “regular” or vegetarian lunch. A bus sign-up sheet will be available soon; the bus will leave at 10:45 and return here at 2 pm. (Submitted by Sandi McClennen)

Clean Up Your Act

Now available on the one-page Kendal shopping list: laundry soap strips. A single 2” x 4” laundry soap strip cleans a whole load of laundry! More than two dozen Kendal residents have tested these laundry soap strips over the last year and a half, and found that they clean just as well as conventional laundry detergents. Plus, they are VERY ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY: no toxic ingredients, no big plastic jugs filled with detergent, no carbon emissions from plastic fabrication, and no heavy weight involved in airplane and semitruck transportation. You can find these listed on the shopping list in the Fox & Fell dining room on the table next to the sample dinner offerings of the day. Cost is $3.00 for a 10-pack; $10.50 for a 32-pack. This is a win-win situation, and now with Kendal making them easily available, it is a win-win-win. (Submitted by Ted Wolner)

COVID NEWS / STATISTICS:

Governor Mike DeWine’s regular COVID Press Conferences: https://ohiochannel.org

Commentary: The Time Has Come for DIY Mandates on COVID (shared by Don Parker)

This Medscape article from Keiser Health News reminds us that, more than ever, we are our own best resource for COVID precautions. The BA.5 surge has shown that precautions in the public arena are lacking or inadequate and we are on our own to protect ourselves. Excerpts of the article by Bernard Wolfson are below. Read the full commentary here.

    …Here we are in the grip of yet another covid-19 surge, yet most people I see out and about are behaving as if the pandemic is over… We all have pandemic fatigue. Even people who should know better have let precautionary measures slide… Public mandates — such as masking and requiring that people be vaccinated to enter restaurants, gyms, and other indoor venues — have been so bitterly politicized that returning to them now, especially in an election year, would be like trying to cram a genie back in the bottle…

    Let’s face it: Covid is with us for the foreseeable future, and we can only speculate about other variants that might blindside us down the road or how many times we can chance reinfection without risking lasting damage to our health. Given this inconvenient truth, now is an excellent time to adopt everyday habits that reduce our risk of contagion — and not just from covid…

    The covid complacency that has overtaken so many of us is in large ways a credit to the vaccines and treatments that have sharply reduced the severity of illness from an infection. But the current vaccines have proved far less protective against infection itself, especially when faced with the evasive mechanisms exhibited by BA.5.

    A starting point for developing your covid defensive strategy is determining how much transmission is happening in your community. If you are in an area of high prevalence, as more than 45% of U.S. counties were in late July, significant caution is warranted. An easy way to find out is by consulting this CDC webpage…

    Basic safety measures:

• Wear a mask in indoor public spaces and crowded outdoor ones. If you are at high risk of serious illness, avoid those places, and find alternatives such as curbside pickup and home delivery.
• If you want to host a dinner party, ask guests to take a rapid home test before they come over. If you are taking an airplane, put on a mask the moment you enter the airport, and at a minimum keep it on until the plane is in the air and then again when you land.
• If you test positive, follow these guidelines: Isolate from people for at least five days after your first symptoms or a positive test result. You can end isolation after the fifth day if you have a negative test, no fever, and your symptoms are improving.
• If you are one of those people who don’t worry about covid because you don’t believe it will make you terribly sick, remember this: The course of the illness can still be highly unpredictable and includes some chance of ending up with long covid, which can leave you with brain fog, shortness of breath, and heart damage.
• If you’re not convinced by any of that, then at least have some consideration for neighbors, co-workers, and relatives who may be older and sicker than you.