CHESTERTOWN — University of Maryland Shore Regional Health will host two virtual town halls this month. According to a news release, the sessions will focus on UM Shore Regional Health’s unique opportunity to reimagine and reinvent how Marylanders on the Upper Shore access and receive health care.
UM Shore Regional Health, backed by the University of Maryland Medical System, is proposing an approach that would see its Chestertown hospital leverage the state’s designation as a Maryland Rural Hospital as the anchor point to hospital-based care, while bringing more aging and wellness services to Kent County, making access to care even easier.
The two planned webinars will include an in-depth discussion about the future of health care in Kent and Northern Queen Anne’s counties.
The first virtual town hall will take place at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 21. The second listening session will take place at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 29.
UM Shore Regional Health is excited to share its vision for the future and welcomes feedback by participating in one of the virtual town hall sessions or by filling out and submitting the feedback form online, the release states.
To access the feedback form or for more information about UM Shore Regional Health’s work in Kent and Queen Anne’s counties, visit umshoreregional.org/Chestertown.
“We don’t know how the babies’ lives are going to be affected,” says Saha, “how susceptible they would be to various types of infectious diseases, and what this means in terms of current and future pandemics.” Indeed, typical CCR5 proteins are thought to protect against a range of pathogens, such as malaria, West Nile Virus, the tick-borne encephalitis virus, yellow fever, and respiratory viruses such as the flu – suggesting that Jiankui may have robbed his subjects of a useful adaptation.
A potential fix
It’s not all bad news, however.
First up, it’s not certain that somatic cell editing would necessarily alter reproductive cells – it’s just a theoretical possibility. To find out if this is really happening, Saha and his team have been developing reporter systems in lab mice, which tag any altered cells with a fluorescent red protein and allow them to be found under the microscope. This means that it’s possible to see visually whether injecting a mouse with an editor that’s meant for, say, the brain, will end up affecting its sperm or eggs. “We’ve seen plenty of red cells in the brain,” says Saha. “Thus far, we haven’t seen anything in the reproductive organs, which is a good reassuring outcome.”
Secondly, not all somatic editing needs to happen inside the body. For some disorders, such as sickle cell disease, the affected tissue – in this case, red blood cells – can be extracted and treated outside the body, in a petri dish. This means that the editor only ever encounters the cells being targeted, and there is almost no risk of mutations being passed down the generations.
Finally, any potential risks might end up dictating who somatic cell editing is provided to, in order to limit them. For example, if it turns out there is a possibility of altering a person’s heritable DNA, they might only be offered to patients who are either past childbearing age or are nearing the end of their lives.
“In some cases, zero is probably not the threshold that’s needed to get into the clinic,” says Saha, explaining that there are likely to be plenty of people who would be willing to sacrifice ever having children in order to improve their quality of life. He believes the way forward is making sure that patients are well-informed of the risks before agreeing to such procedures.
An inter-generational experiment
But let’s say that we do end up with artificial mistakes in the human gene pool. Exactly how permanent could they become? Could new mutations created today still be washing around in 10,000 years, as future humans watch the red supergiant Antares’ scheduled explosion into a supernova as bright as the full Moon?
The year is 2035. You’re driving a brand new electric car and you glide into a nearby forecourt. What does it look like? If it’s a large chain establishment, you can expect to be greeted by a fleet of chargers, a small supermarket store and a large car park. But if it’s a smaller, independent forecourt, especially in a rural area, the scene will be different. In fact, it might not exist at all.
At first bite, this sounds melodramatic. Historically, petrol stations have been struggling for several years. From a peak of around 35,000 in 1980, there are now just over 8000, according to the latest figures from the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA).
The pandemic directly caused around 100 stations to pause sales last year. As of 2019, 70% of independent filling stations that were operating in 2000 have shut their doors permanently.
But according to Gordon Balmer, the commercial manager for the PRA, many of those forecourts that survived the pandemic have not just survived but thrived. “Before the pandemic, the cumulative average growth rate [for convenience retail] was about 4% year on year,” he says. “The pandemic has actually accelerated it: it went up last year to around 6%.”
Lockdown rules forced consumers to shop more locally, and with more and more forecourts now offering what Balmer describes as “world class” food and retail facilities – including one Scottish station that even offers a cigar tasting service – the pandemic created something of a perfect storm.
“We’re a world away from mouldy sausage rolls,” Balmer says. “When people have gone to their fuel station to buy food, they’ve found that they’ve not only got what they want, but they’ve got it at a good price. Our members have done extremely well.”
Petrol stations have been supplementing pressured fuel sales with retail arms for many years, but as a rule, those with the most developed retail offerings tend to be larger brands. Smaller, rural stations have tended to struggle to provide the same services. David Charman, owner of an award-winning rural forecourt in Parkfoot, Kent, says: “The loss of fuel sales puts an awful lot of pressure on particularly small rural forecourts. The Tesco Expresses of this world are much better set up to deal with convenience than the small rural store.”
Another major challenge faces the owners of small and rural stations: electrification. The global push towards replacing fossil fuels with electricity has caused problems with adapting this new focus to a winning business model, particularly for rural forecourts. There are issues with logistics and, relatedly, cost, not to mention technology, and Charman doesn’t gloss over these.
“Put frankly,” he says, “I think there’s no possibility of rural service stations becoming charge hubs for electric cars. You’ve got to go where the electricity is, not where the petrol station is, because there are cars now that require 270kVa of equipment to fastcharge or super-fast-charge really, really quickly. And certainly 150kVa is becoming the norm. Realistically, few petrol stations have that kind of capacity of electricity available. They can’t reinvent themselves to where the industry is going.”
The Tottenham star will turn 28 in July and it is understood he is becoming increasingly concerned at Tottenham’s failure to compete for major trophies.
Kane is expected to tell Tottenham he wants to leave if they fail to qualify for the Champions League next season.
So what should Kane do? And where should he play his football next season? The Sky Sports pundits have had their say…
Jamie Redknapp: No surprise if Kane asks to leave Tottenham
Sky Sports’ Jamie Redknapp:
“I wouldn’t be surprised [if Kane is considering leaving].
“He’s a man of few words when it comes to anything other than football. Normally he does his talking on the pitch. The fact that the quotes are out there does make me question what will happen. He’s put it on Tottenham – he wants to be in the Champions League.
“If they finish in the top four and win a trophy then it’s been a very successful season. If they don’t, they are certainly going to risk losing their talisman.
“Where he goes is certainly going to be interesting. Who has the money to buy someone like Harry Kane? He’s one of the best in the world and if he doesn’t feel the club is going in the direction l wouldn’t be surprised if he does ask for a move in the summer.”
Souness: It’s now or never for Kane
6:04
Graeme Souness and Darren Bent discuss Chelsea after their impressive 4-1 victory against Crystal Palace and whether Erling Haaland should be their number one transfer target in the summer.
Sky Sports’ Graeme Souness:
“There are two prizes out there: Haaland and Kane.
“With Haaland, there is still a question mark, but that is getting smaller with every week. With Harry, there are no question marks.
“But I think for Harry Kane, it is this year or never.
“For Spurs to become what Harry would want isn’t going to happen during his career. It’s not going to happen during his time at the football club. He hasn’t got six, seven years to wait.
“I don’t think that [£200m] would be outrageous. I don’t think Pep is being entirely honest when he says they won’t go big this year. I think they will.”
Keane: Tottenham must be frustrating Kane
Sky Sports’ Roy Keane:
“It’s only natural for us to speculate about Harry Kane if they don’t get in the Champions League. He must be getting frustrated.
“If they can’t get into the Champions League, and obviously they are not competing at the top end of the league, then it is only natural from a selfish point of view that Harry Kane would have to look at his options – and he would have some great options because he is a world-class striker and there aren’t many out there.”
Merson: Cup final could be defining moment
2:32
Paul Merson thinks the outcome of the Carabao Cup final between Tottenham and Manchester City could determine Harry Kane’s future.
Sky Sports’ Paul Merson:
“If Manchester United want to challenge Manchester City over the next three or four years they will have to have a Harry Kane. They need a centre-forward.
“In the cup final, he will be working on scraps. Man City are going to dominate the ball…I think that’s going to be the defining moment. After the game he will come in and think ‘you know what, I’ve got to leave Tottenham’.”
Hendrie: Kane should join Man City
Sky Sports’ Lee Hendrie:
“If Harry Kane goes to Manchester City, they will just dominate completely. At his age, why is he going to take a gamble on Manchester United? We talk about winning trophies etc, my first thought would be ‘Man City all day’.”
A few weeks ago, New York hedge fund Alden Global Capital LLC was on the verge of acquiring Tribune Publishing Co. —home to the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and other U.S. metro newspapers—with seemingly no one in its way.
Then it offended one of its partners in the deal, setting off a battle that could help shape the future of local news in America.
Maryland hotel magnate Stewart Bainum Jr. had worked out a side arrangement with Alden Chief Executive Heath Freeman to buy the Sun, a paper Mr. Bainum grew up reading. Then, in Mr. Bainum’s view, Alden tried to raise the cost of a fee agreement that would substantially jack up the price, people close to the situation said.
Mr. Bainum told his advisers late on the afternoon of Friday, March 12, that he was worried he could no longer trust Alden, according to a person familiar with the matter.
That evening, the 74-year-old got on the phone with his bankers and decided to attempt a stunning 11th-hour move: his own bid for the whole company, which he announced by the end of the weekend.
After registering more than 888,000 people since December 2020, the Tarrant County Public Health Department says they’ve scheduled appointments for everyone currently on their COVID-19 vaccine waitlist.
The health department asks that if you’ve registered recently and have not received an appointment to please call their hotline at 817-248-6299 to get you set up.
Of the 842,523 vaccines that have been administered in Tarrant County through Wednesday, April 7, the health department said 780,007 of them (84%) went to county residents while 134,516 (16%) went to out-of-county residents.
The number of Tarrant County residents who received at least one dose of the vaccine through TCPH is 450,242 (21%) while the number of fully-vaccinated residents is at 265,617 (12%).
Data from the Tarrant County health department indicated 65% of the people who have received the vaccine were white, 10% were Black and 8% were Asian. The remaining 17% identified as Other (10%) or did not report a race (7%). By ethnicity, 45% were not Hispanic or Latino while 11% identified as Hispanic or Latino; 44% did not report an ethnicity.
Women were 52% of those receiving vaccines while men were 40%; 8% did not report.
The most common age groups getting vaccinated were those between 25-49 and 50-64, both at 32%, while those 65-74 were 19% and those 75 and up were 12%. Those between 16-24 were 6% of those being vaccinated.
The county is still administering vaccines and said Friday that people who now sign up on the county’s waiting list should expect to be contacted for an appointment with in 24-48 hours.
Want to Get on a Vaccine Waitlist?
County health departments have launched waitlists for adults 16 years old and over.
You can register to recieve the vaccination in Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant counties. Links are below:
You do not need to be a resident of the county to register for a COVID-19 vaccine in that county — registration is open to anyone in Texas. For those without internet access, Tarrant County is also taking registrations by phone at 817-248-6299. In Dallas County, call the DCHHS vaccine hotline at 1-855-IMMUNE9 (1-855-466-8639). In Denton County, call 940-349-2585.
In Texas, the COVID-19 vaccines are currently is currently available to anyone over the age of 16, regardless of in which phase they had previously been grouped. President Biden said on April 6 the vaccine should be available to all Americans, in all states, by April 19.
The vaccines are still not approved for children however — those trials are ongoing.
Once vaccinated, people who received either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines are expected to get some level of protection within a couple of weeks after the first shot, but full protection may not happen until a couple of weeks after the second shot. For those who receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine — there is only one shot needed. Even when fully vaccinated, it’s still possible to become infected by the virus since none of the vaccines offer 100% protection from infection. With that in mind, even if you’ve been vaccinated it’s still a good idea to wear a mask and keep some separation between strangers or those whose vaccination status is unclear.
The April edition of InfoQ Live, the one-day virtual event for software engineers and architects, will focus on Java, why applications should use a recent Java version, and how to overcome the real-world challenges of upgrading to the latest Java version.
Explore what is currently available in OpenJDK 16 and what is upcoming in OpenJDK 17. Learn about the status of the new features being introduced into Java via Project Valhalla. Leverage the new features in Java looking at cost, reliability, scalability, and performance. Deep-dive into these topics at InfoQ Live on Tuesday, April 27.
All talks are available on-demand after the conference so you don’t miss a session even if you can’t attend the live event.
InfoQ Live Editorial Sessions
Learn how world-class software professionals solved common challenges. Discover practical ways to guide your problem-solving approach.
Java upgrades are sometimes seen as difficult and many applications are still running on an older version of Java. This session describes the current six months release process of Java and why applications should use a recent Java version. After that, I’ll explain the challenges of upgrading and provide some useful tips to make the process easier. Concrete examples will be used to show you how to upgrade your application to Java 16 or 17.
Like clockwork, another Java release arrived this March. In this session, we’ll dive into the exciting new features of Java 16. First, we’ll look at API updates that will make your life easier. Then, we’ll look at two major new language features: records and pattern matching. Sealed Classes are still a preview feature in this version, but we’ll take a peek at what they can offer as well. Come join me to stay up to date on all things Java!
Sander Mak, Director of Technology @Picnic
Co-located event: InfoQ Roundtable (sponsored by Azul)
Join a live panel discussion between software practitioners where you can ask your own questions to accelerate your learning.
Leaders from the Java community will delve into some of the new features in Java including Records, Local Variable Type Inference, and performance improvements. They will also discuss the various ‘free’ builds of OpenJDK, identifying the best way to mitigate cost and risk, and look into the creation and development of Foojay.io, and what the founders’ future aspirations are for this Java community hub.
We are donating 100% of net revenue tickets (minus taxes, credit card fees, and processing fees) for this event to organizations working towards diversity, equity, and inclusion in the technology industry. If you’d like to contribute, register for just $19.95. In addition, at every event registration (InfoQ Live Pass, or InfoQ Live + Roundtable Pass), you receive a gift pass you can share with someone on your team or a friend.
“That’s the lifeblood of our industry. These fresh perspectives and youth that are coming up with things we’ve never seen before,” said Nerissa Von Helpenstill, the regional director of FGI Dallas.
FGI Dallas is part of Fashion Group International, Inc., a global, nonprofit, professional organization. The Dallas group has awarded more than $210,000 in scholarships to date and hosted its first-ever virtual competition last year which awarded over $60,000.
It’s virtual again in 2021 but still with plenty of excitement.
“We were already talking about how difficult the judging will be,” said Marilyn Stewart, the co-chair of the scholarship competition.
More than 100 students from across Texas designed and made garments that are now under the critical eyes of judges.
“This year we’re offering a category of long gown, evening and bridal and this seems to be a favorite of students. They love entering that competition including contest dresses. The other category is sportswear. We combined women and men this year. And then the third category is sustainability which is very important today,” Stewart said. “The criteria for entering sustainability would be using natural fibers, or repurposing a garment, ripping something apart, making something new out of it.”
“The level of talent we’re seeing from these students is amazing. It blows my mind it’s so inspiring to see what they can do and what they come up with, the fresh ideas,” Von Helpenstill said.
Students can win scholarships valued up to $5,000 each, an apprenticeship and two sewing machines are among the prizes as well.
Winners will be announced at a virtual event on April 21.
The event will kick off with a keynote speech from Dr. Maryann Cairns, Assistant, professor at Southern Methodist University in The Dedman College of Anthropology, who is spearheading new sustainability initiatives in the fashion industry.
The following six examples outline how we might solve critical problems using these proposed data governance models.
The COVID-19 pandemic surfaced the shortcomings of the world’s collective approach to data. Inability – and sometimes unwillingness – to share and use data to combat COVID-19 or to protect against predatory uses of data have negatively impacted society. A lack of trust combined with asymmetric economic interests are slowing progress. The importance of finding solutions to improve outcomes in times of crisis is undeniable, but enormous opportunities also exist across a myriad of ordinary use cases and for normal day-to-day life outcomes.
There are 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created each day at our current pace, but that pace is only accelerating with the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT). Most of this data is siloed – it is trapped in walled-off databases – even within a specific jurisdiction. The inaccessibility exists due to a variety of complexities, cutting across policy, regulatory, commercial and technological barriers.
How can we create opportunities to unlock data to solve critical challenges? Whether those purposes are for climate, health, mobility or others. What can better outcomes look like? Importantly, how do we ensure that any governance models developed are grounded in responsible, ethical and fair use?
Today’s technology advances allow us to enable responsible data sharing in ways that were previously impossible. Coupled with ethical and innovative commercial and policy enablers, better outcomes are possible with best efforts among collaborative entities.
The Data for Common Purpose Initiative (DCPI) is a first-of-its-kind global initiative formed to design a governance framework to responsibly enhance the societal benefit from data.
The framework, launched December 2020, was created to refocus data policy and models towards common purposes that will enable differentiated permissioning of the same data, depending on context. Such flexible data governance models could enable government-led data exchanges that can promote a transition to a data-driven economy.
Historically, institutions and existing policy and regulatory models have attempted to balance data protection with business incentives. The DCPI will reorient governance to the realities of data sharing, developing a framework to enable access to data for intended and agreed upon purposes, without compromising individual privacy rights.
A recent report, Data-driven economies: Foundations for a common future, explores some of these themes further, looking into the key enablers businesses, civil society and government must get right in order to lay the foundation for a better future through data sharing.
A new report from the World Economic Forum, Data-driven economies: Foundations for our common future, outlines five requirements which systems and governance models need to meet to leverage data for better outcomes. It explores how new systems and governance models can create a commercial, technical and policy environment to unlock the full value of data for society.
With responsible and new data governance models, we can design for a better future. The following six examples imagine how we can solve critical problems through new data governance models that responsibly combines data from personal, commercial and/or government sources, while removing some unintended policy barriers.
1. Solving rare diseases
The challenge:Approximately 10% of the global population or 475 million people are affected by a rare condition, with an estimated 15.2 million individuals expected to have clinical genomic testing for a rare condition within the next five years.
What is the future we want to create together:We have built a world where we provide researchers and clinicians with access to global rare-disease data sets. Genomic data, coupled with phenotypic and clinical data, is a critical resource that can shorten the diagnostic odyssey faced by rare-disease patients. It can also power research and innovation in diagnostics and therapeutics. A federated data system is one method that allows local institutions to protect sensitive personal health data while still providing remote access to datasets for diagnostic capacity.
“The solutions to many rare diseases are available, but they are trapped in an isolated clinical record that’s often in another country. With new solutions to remotely aggregate and access sensitive health data while still adhering to local data privacy and security laws, there is an opportunity to finally provide answers to the 300 million+ people living without a treatment for their rare disease.” Lynsey Chediak, Project Lead, Shaping the Future of Health and Healthcare, World Economic Forum.
Authorized Public Purpose Access (APPA) is a governance model designed to maximize the socially beneficial potential of data while protecting individual rights such as privacy and the legitimate interests of data holders.
A recent whitepaper released January 2020 explains this in detail, proposing an approach to data governance that prioritizes value creation that benefits a broad range of stakeholders including society as a whole. Using healthcare data, the authors examine existing data-governance models, finding that most models are biased toward the interests of one of three major stakeholder groups—individual data subjects, technology companies, and other data holders, or governments (whose interests may or may not align with those of their citizens).
2. Shaping healthier lives
The challenge:71% of all deaths globally are caused by non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Accelerated by unhealthy, uninformed or inaccessible consumer choices, individual health has now risen to be one of the greatest societal challenges faced today. Worse yet, crises like COVID-19 demonstrate the massive threat that an unhealthy population poses to modern societies.
What is the future we want to create together: Imagine a world where every nutrition, exercise, beauty or health product or service for consumers is tailored to their unique biology, lifestyle and behaviors. A world where individuals receive personalized and trusted insights that empower them to live the heathiest lives possible through responsible, science-backed lifestyle and consumption recommendations that are tailored to their unique mental and physical health needs. A world where consumers own and control their own data and use it to inform their personal decisions to improve their overall wellbeing.
“The Precision Consumer 2030 initiative aspires to establish the first ever precision consumer ecosystem and public-private data collaborative that will gain learnings to inform and advance innovation, research, governance and consumer adoption of precision solutions in a way that is equitable, trusted and consumer-centric.” Andrew Moose, Head of Retail, Consumer and Lifestyle Industries, World Economic Forum.
3. Solving humanitarian need for food and essential goods
The challenge: World hunger is on the rise. Globally, about 8.9% of the world’s population – 690 million people – go to bed on an empty stomach each night. Since 2014, the number of people affected by hunger has been slowly on the rise. If it continues at this rate, it will exceed 840 million by 2030. In 2020, Oxfam projected that up to 12,000 lives per day could be lost due to starvation.
What is the future we want to create together: The objective is to provide humanitarian, industry and public stakeholders with a system-wide view that can only be achieved through harnessing the power of combined private and public sector data elements, to allow near real time visibility of the flow of food and essential goods at a global and local level. Identifying and relieving bottlenecks is crucial to getting humanitarian supplies where they need to be, and aggregated data insights are key to creating future supply system resilience that leads to protection and preservation of lives at risk, especially during crisis.
“Harnessing data and existing technology platforms to create open-source visibility tools, aggregating ‘least granular level’, anonymised transport, commodity and disruption data, to deliver global system-wide visibility can enable prompt, even pre-emptive action. Through conceptual development of a ‘Global Supply System Dashboard, the Forum is engaging international bodies, industry partners, and broader ecosystem stakeholders together to inform the development of such ‘meta-layer’ visibility solutions, providing a unique opportunity to build systemic resilience that can lead to multiple benefits, not least protecting livelihoods and lives vulnerable to crisis.”Margi van Gogh, Head of Supply Chain and Transport, Shaping the Future of Mobility, World Economic Forum.
4. Shaping the future of urbanization
The challenge: By 2050, nearly 70% of people will live in a city. The world is urbanizing at unprecedented speed and scale. From public health, infrastructure assets, mobility to transport, the most valuable data for building new services and improving social outcomes resides at the local level, fragmented across multiple agencies and stakeholders.
What is the future we want to create together:Help cities to harness data to grow inclusively and sustainably. Data helps through citizen participation, better targeting of government support and universal access to services, tailoring services for the community and democratizing access to city policymakers.
“We know that digital and data infrastructure in our cities is crucial to their resilience and sustainability over the long term. The Forum is already helping cities to build that infrastructure through the G20 Global Smart Cities Alliance.To get the most value from smart city technologies, we can go further to unlock data that sits across multiple sectors and stakeholders, in service of the public interest.” Rushi Rama, Smart Cities Lead, World Economic Forum.
5. Shaping sustainable oceans
The challenge:There is an abundance of oceans data available, more than 200 open sources have been mapped, but at the same time thousands of data sets are still siloed, limiting our ability to increased insight and knowledge about the ocean.
What is the future we want to create together: Greater access to data sets and technology across industries, governments, science and citizens to ensure balance of a productive and healthy ocean.
“Through the Ocean Data Platform, we aim to be the largest and most inclusive hub for ocean data sharing. It is an advanced data integration platform utilizing new technologies that enhances the flow of ocean data from sensors and data sources all around the world, in all different types and volumes. By uploading the worlds largest open ocean data set, containing data from more than 220,000 research cruises, 1.95 billion temperature profiles and 1.13 billion sailinity profiles dating back to the 1890s, the time to access these data has been reduced from days and hours to seconds.” Bjørn Tore Markussen, CEO C4IR Ocean, Ocean Data Platform
6. Shaping the long-term sustainability of tourism
The challenge: The travel and tourism industry accounts for 10% of global GDP and employment, but its long-term resilience and role in economic development and connectivity is challenged by issues such as overcrowding, cultural and environmental degradation and overall destination capacity constraints.
What is the future we want to create together:Public and private stakeholders can integrate their data sets and leverage big data and digital platforms to allow real-time tracking of the supply and demand for destination tourism resources, leading to interventions that enable the sustainable, inclusive and resilient development of the tourism industry.
“Sustainable tourism is about the efficient use of destinations’ limited resources and capacity to maximise benefits for locals and visitors alike. Unlocking the potential of big data and other digital tools is vital for achieving this and making sustainability an opportunity and not a cost for the sector.” Maksim Soshkin, Data for Destinations Lead, Shaping the Future of Mobility, World Economic Forum.
Future of data requires a balanced approach
These scenarios are entirely plausible today. However, without proper protocols and governance, society risks creating a world in which access to data is overly restricted, impeding significant human progress and innovation, or in which authorities require data sharing without striking a balance that respects the rights of the individual parties involved, including businesses. The Data for Common Purpose Initiative (DCPI), launched by the World Economic Forum in 2020,is one such initiative that aims to collaboratively articulate parameters for responsible, equitable and ethical use of data to solve these challenges.
Coweta County hasn’t determined whether there will be a continuation of the official coordinated volunteer effort, such as what was held for two days at Smokey Road Middle School last week.
The current focus is on debris pickup, said Catherine Wickey, Coweta communications manager. Updates will be posted on the Coweta County Government Facebook page and through the Newnan Times-Herald.
The county’s volunteer hotline remains open, and those wanting to help, as well as those needing help, can call from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. The volunteers staffing the call center are working to match up those in need with those who can help.
The county will continue operating a service center at the Coweta County Fairgrounds this week from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Those impacted by the tornado can pick up donated items and do laundry. There were shower facilities last week, but because they weren’t being utilized, the shower facilities have been moved to another county. Only one person used the showers last week, according to Wickey.
Last week, there was bus service from the fairgrounds to the impacted areas, but that service has now ended, according to Wickey. Very few people used the bus system.
The call center hotline, for those needing help and wanting to help, is 910-632-3309.
