As working from home and social distancing becomes more and more important in our community’s efforts to confront COVID-19, we want to do our part.  Good connectivity is now recognized as vital to maintaining personal health, social and mental health and economic health. During the pandemic both the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Governor Scott deemed construction and maintenance of telecommunications as “essential critical infrastructure.”   Thus, we intend to do what we can to maintain our services and support your needs for good connectivity, while taking appropriate precautions.  Please help us do this safely, with minimum feasible risk to our staff and yourselves.  Here’s how we see both our roles in the current circumstances.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

1.  Please be patient.  Our workforce available for site visits has been reduced.  We are requiring all staff to have a negative COVID test before entering any customer premises. We are not permitting any site visits by staff who are at higher risk due to age or existing health conditions.
2.  Please do not call us for site visits if you have any of the following symptoms, defined by the Centers for Disease Control (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html):
   1. Cough
   2. Shortness of breath
   3. Fever
3.  Site visits inside your home or business will be scheduled only with your approval.
4.  If we do schedule a site visit, please maintain a 6 foot distance from our staff.                              

WHAT WE WILL DO

1. We will not schedule any home visits by any staff person who is showing any symptoms associated with the virus or has done so within the past 2 weeks or has not had a negative test before the scheduled home visit.
2. We will not do any work inside your home or business premises without your express request and permission.
3. Before doing any work in your home we will swab our hands with hospital-grade bleach-based disinfectant and wear gloves.  
4. We will wear a mask at all times.
5. We will maintain 6 feet social distancing to the extent possible.
6. After completing our work we will swab all surfaces that we have touched with hospital-grade bleach-based disinfectant.

If you have further concerns, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the Vermont Department of Health and the University of Vermont Medical Center all have easy-to-understand information on how to protect yourself from transmission of the disease.  You can find extensive information at:

• https://www.uvmhealth.org/Pages/Coronavirus.aspx
• https://www.healthvermont.gov/response/infectious-disease/2019-novel-coronavirus
• https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/home/index.html

Thanks to you for your support of our services.  Our excellent partnership in these efforts will contribute to the health of our community in so many ways.  As always we stand ready to answer your questions by phone or e-mail.