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The Department of Public Health and Wellness is reminding people that despite cooler weather, mosquitoes are still active and continue to pose a threat for transmitting diseases such as West Nile virus. People should continue to guard themselves by wearing insect repellant and long sleeves and pants when going outdoors, especially at dawn and dusk when mosquitoes are most active.
This year there has been one death reported from West Nile in ZIP code 40211 and one other non-fatal case in ZIP code 40215. Mosquitoes have tested positive for West Nile in ZIP codes 40204, 40205, 40206, 40211, 40213, 40214 and 40215. It is also important to note that we have had no mosquitoes test positive for any diseases other than West Nile virus.
The Department of Public Health and Wellness is continuing countywide mosquito control actions, including treating catch basins, monitoring mosquito traps and testing mosquitoes for diseases, and fogging when necessary.
“Even though we can expect mosquito populations to begin to decrease as the weather gets cooler, West Nile positive mosquitoes may continue to be present throughout the entire community until the first hard frost,” said Dr. Sarah Moyer, director of the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness. “If you go outdoors during dusk and dawn, you should wear long sleeves and pants and insect repellant to protect yourself. We advise everyone to take the appropriate precautions no matter what ZIP code you live in.”
The Department of Public Health and Wellness advises people to take the following precautions:
Avoid Mosquito Bites
- Use insect repellents when you go outdoors. Repellents containing DEET, picaridin, IR3535, and some oil of lemon eucalyptus and para-menthane-diol products provide longer-lasting protection. To optimize safety and effectiveness, repellents should be used according to the label instructions.
- Wear long sleeves, long pants and socks when outdoors. Mosquitoes may bite through thin clothing, so spraying clothes with repellent containing permethrin will give extra protection. Don’t apply repellents containing permethrin directly to skin. Do not spray repellent on the skin under your clothing.
- Take extra care during peak mosquito biting hours. Take extra care to use repellent and protective clothing at dusk and dawn or consider avoiding outdoor activities during these times.
Mosquito-Proof Your Home
- Install or repair screens on windows and doors to keep mosquitoes outside. Use your air conditioning, if you have it.
- Help reduce the number of mosquitoes around your home by emptying standing water from flowerpots, gutters, buckets, pool covers, pet water dishes, discarded tires and birdbaths on a regular basis.
Last year there were four human West Nile cases in Louisville and no deaths. In 2017 there was one non-fatal human case. In 2016 there were two human cases and one death. In 2015, there were three human cases with no deaths.
In most instances, people infected with West Nile virus either show no symptoms or relatively mild symptoms. However, less than one percent of infected people develop a serious neurologic illness such as encephalitis or meningitis. Serious illness can occur in people of any age. However, people over 60 years of age are at the greatest risk for severe disease. People with certain medical conditions, such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension, kidney disease, and people who have received organ transplants, are also at greater risk for serious illness.
The Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness has operated a mosquito control program for more than 60 years. The department does surveillance of mosquito populations with traps strategically located throughout the community, and tests mosquitos for such diseases as West Nile, La Crosse, Eastern Equine and St. Louis Encephalitis.
In the spring the department pre-treats potential mosquito breeding sites with larvicide to prevent hatch offs. In the summer it treats catch basins and performs mosquito fogging in response to West Nile virus and other mosquito-borne diseases.
For more information on mosquito control and prevention, visit https://www.cdc.gov/westnile/index.html or www.louisvilleky.gov/health. If mosquitoes are bad in your neighborhood, file a complaint by calling MetroCall 311 or 502.574.5000.
Louisville residents are invited to bring unneeded documents to be shredded and prescription drugs to be disposed of at a free event on November 2, 2019. The paper shredding and drug toss event is a joint operation of Louisville Metro Public Works and Louisville Metro Police.
Residents can protect themselves from identify theft and divert unused medications from the waste stream or misuse by bringing items to:
Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center
1030 Phillips Lane
Saturday, November 2, 2019
8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Businesses may not participate in this event. All paper materials will be shredded on site and recycled. Shredding services are donated by the Louisville Branch of Shred-It Louisville. The drug toss is a drive-through event.
In advance, black out all personal information on all medication containers that will be tossed. For safety reasons, sharp items, needles, lances, cosmetics, personal care or hygiene items cannot be accepted. Medication products should never be flushed down the toilet or drain, burned in the open or thrown in the trash because they can contaminate the environment if exposed to drinking and ground water.
Dare to Care Food Bank broke ground today, on its new Dare to Care Community Kitchen in partnership with the Novak Family Foundation. The new Kitchen will be located at the site of a former grocery store at 28th and Virginia Streets in Louisville’s Parkland neighborhood. Opening in April 2020, the new Kitchen will triple the size of Dare to Care’s current kitchen, expanding capacity for existing and new programs to serve Kentuckiana’s 170,000 food insecure residents.
More than a new building, the Community Kitchen ushers in a new era of fighting hunger in the community according to Brian Riendeau, Dare to Care Executive Director.
“Since our founding 50 years ago, Dare to Care has grown and evolved to meet the changing needs of our hungry neighbors. This expanded capacity will equip us to launch innovative new programming designed to meet community needs in the next decade and beyond.”
To fund construction of the new facility, Dare to Care is launching a $7.1 Million capital campaign. The Novak Family Foundation continued its deep support of Dare to Care’s mission by providing the lead gift for the new facility.
“We believe that no person should ever go to bed hungry because of lack of access to food” Said David Novak, “We are honored to partner with such a forward-thinking organization like Dare to Care Food Bank. The new facility allows us to support the changing food insecurity needs of our community in new and expansive ways”
Yum! Brands, a longtime supporter of Dare to Care, is also stepping up to support the expansion.
“Dare to Care’s work around hunger relief is truly transforming people’s lives for the better, and Yum! Brands is honored to support their mission with this $1 million gift,” said Yum! Brands Chief Executive Officer Greg Creed. “In Yum!’s long history with Dare to Care, our partnership has always been focused on giving back to our hometown, helping those in need and making Louisville and the surrounding communities a great place for our local employees and their families. We’re excited to see how the new Dare to Care Community Kitchen will continue to achieve this goal.”
Together, Yum! Brands and its Louisville-based employees have contributed more than $16 million over 17 years to the Dare to Care Food Bank to end hunger in the Kentucky/Indiana region.
Louisville Metro Government owns the building and will enter into a long-term lease with Dare to Care.
“Dare to Care is a critical partner in the fight to end hunger in Louisville, and we are excited to partner with them on this expansion, which will spur innovative thinking around how to increase access to affordable and healthy food,” said Mayor Greg Fischer. “This project will breathe new life into this commercial node in the Parkland neighborhood, attracting other retail and services to the area.”
Plans for the new facility include new programming, moving several Dare to Care staff from its Fern Valley main distribution facility, and collaborating with Catholic Charities’ Common Table job training program, providing it with a more extensive curriculum and greater enrollment capacity. Dare to Care’s new programming includes growing Kids Cafe afterschool sites, creating meals in various formats for senior citizens, processing produce and recovered food to make it easier to use and lengthen its shelf life, expanding the reach of its nutrition education programming, and providing a platform for the creation of programs to meet future needs.
Construction is beginning at the new site and is expected to be completed in April 2020.
For more information and to learn how to join in the capital campaign, visit https://daretocare.org/learn-more/community-kitchen/.
Photo: Project Green Heart
At 1000 Stanley Avenue this week, the first of thousands of trees was planted as part of a major health study to determine the impact of green foliage on the community’s health.
Councilwoman Keisha Dorsey (D-3) was on hand for the first tree planted as part of the Green Heart Project, a program being conducted by the University of Louisville Environment Institute and The Nature Conservancy.
“We know Louisville Metro has been losing trees at an alarming rate. As the Green Heart Project moves forward in the coming years, we will be able to have a better understanding on how greenery impacts the health of the people of our community while replenishing our tree canopy,” said Dorsey.
The Green Heart Project will examine, for the first time, if increasing greenness in an urban community will reduce the levels of air pollution in the neighborhood, decrease the risk of heart disease, and increase outdoor activity and relationships between neighbors.
Green Heart will help discover:
- How to plant trees in urban communities to maximize the removal of air pollution,
- If increasing green space affects the risk of developing obesity, diabetes, and heart disease,
- If increasing urban green space reduces mental stress, enhances social cohesion, increases physical activity, and
- If urban green space affects crime rates, property values, storm water runoff, energy use, and heat island effect.
Research teams with the project have already conducted health screenings with neighborhood residents and will recheck their biomarkers over time to determine whether the additional trees and shrubs improve their health, including cardiovascular health, diabetes, and other health indicators.
The Green Heart Project has a specific timeline:
- Baseline measurements in 2018 and 2019
- Monitor levels of air pollution around roadways and residential areas.
- Recruit hundreds of people for the HEAL Health Study to see baseline health, stress levels, lifestyle and relationships, and disease risk.
- Greening in 2019 and 2020
- Plant thousands of trees, shrubs, and grasses to create a robust and sustainable ecosystem maximized to remove air pollution.
- Monitoring in 2020 and 2021
- Track changes in pollution, physical and mental health, and social change.
- Comparison in 2022
- Compare observed changes before planting and two years after planting
“Every neighborhood in our community is special and we all want a better quality of life,” said Dorsey. “Now, we will be able to see through the Green Heart Project if the beauty of trees and greenery not only improve our neighborhoods but our health as well.”
For more information about the Green Heart Project, go to: https://louisville.edu/greenheart/about
Photo: Louisville Metro Council
Over the last two years, much attention has been focused on efforts to help the homeless in Louisville Metro. One organization works with the Metro Council and other agencies to find ways to address the problem.
Councilwoman Madonna Flood (D-24) announces the next South Central Regional Forum will focus on the work of The Coalition for the Homeless on Wednesday, October 16th.
“Homelessness is a great challenge for many cities and Louisville Metro is no exception,” says the Councilwoman. “The Coalition knows first-hand the scope of the situation and resources the city uses to deal with the problem.”
The forum is set for the South Central Regional Library at 7400 Jefferson Boulevard from 6:00pm to 8:00pm.
Natalie Harris, Executive Director of the Coalition has been invited to talk about the group’s mission. The Coalition educates the community about homelessness and inspires action, advocates for system change and coordinates the community response to homelessness through efficient use of resources and funding.
“If you have a question or would like a better understanding of the homeless issue in the community, then I encourage you to come and join us” says Flood.
Code Enforcement Officers and LMPD Officers will also be present at the forum to answer public safety and other questions.
The South Central Regional Forums are sponsored by Councilwoman Flood and Council members Mark Fox (D-13), Barbara Shanklin (D-2) and James Peden (R-23).
For more information about this South Central Regional Forum, contact Councilwoman Flood’s office at 574-1124.
After less than a year, a new restauranteur is ready to move out of the kitchen incubator program at Chef Space and into a storefront of his own.
Open Caribbean Kitchen owner Ernst Pierre today opened his new restaurant, located at 4735 Poplar Level Road, Suite 1. Open Caribbean Kitchen serves a variety of Caribbean food, including Haitian, Dominican, and Trinidadian.
Pierre, a transplant to Louisville from Jacksonville, Fla., joined Chef Space in November 2018, where he has operated his business as part of the kitchen incubator’s membership track. Chef Space enabled him to cut his production time and easily test new recipes.
Pierre also graduated from the Entrée-preneurship program, a free 10-week series of classes designed to foster the development of new restauranteurs and food entrepreneurs by providing front and back of house training, as well as budgeting and marketing. The Entrée-preneurship Series began in 2018 out of the city’s Small Business Development team and has graduated over 80 entrepreneurs with skills needed to start or grow their businesses in Louisville’s food industry. The program is now administered by Chef Space.
“Supporting aspiring entrepreneurs with programs like Chef Space and Entree-preneurship helps Louisville maintain its status as a world-class culinary city,” said Mayor Greg Fischer. “We celebrate with Ernst Pierre as he takes his business to the next level and wish him great success.”
With the support of Chef Space, members can experience the multifaceted factors of operating in the food industry with less financial overhead and insecurity as one would experience when opening their own storefront. Since its inception, Chef Space has graduated several members into their own storefronts and business spaces.
Operating since 2015, Chef Space is Louisville’s first kitchen incubator. Chef Space was started by Community Ventures, a nonprofit community development corporation committed to improving the lives of the residents of west Louisville. The 13,000-square-foot facility offers multiple food preparation and processing stations, access to capital, storage space, and training opportunities for its members.
Alongside Community Ventures, Chef Space exists because of the generous support of its funders and community partners, including: Louisville Metro Government, Community Foundation of Louisville, Community Trust Bank, the Department of Treasury New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC), the Department of Health and Human Services Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI), Gheens Foundation, Horn Foundation, Humana Foundation, James Graham Brown Foundation, J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, Kentucky Reinvestment Fund, Kentucky Bank’s Bank Enterprise Award, Neighborworks America, Prodigy Construction Corporation, Sam Swope Family Foundation, Texas Roadhouse, Traditional Bank, the U.S. Small Business Administration, and Wilson Industries.
Additional information about Chef Space is available at www.chefspace.org. If you would like more information about Open Caribbean Kitchen and the upcoming grand opening, or about Chef Space in general, please contact Jessica Morgan at (502) 566-6076 or jmorgan@cvky.org.
Photo: Louisville Metro Council
For a second time in less than a week, Solid Waste Management Services Enforcement Officers, with help from a private citizen, have located and impounded a vehicle caught on camera illegally dumping. It’s the 12th impounded vehicle of the year.
“I want to thank the citizens who assisted SWMS Officers in locating this vehicle. It’s assistance like this from the public that are making sure are neighborhoods are not being turned into someone’s personal dumping ground,” said Councilwoman Nicole George (D-21). “The message has always been clear, if you illegally dump in our neighborhoods, it will be costly when you get caught.”
According to SWMS Enforcement, on August 10th, a citizen’s private security system captured a white Ford F-150 being used to dump a couch in the Beechmont Neighborhood. The SWMS Enforcement Team was able to locate the vehicle today in the 100 block of East Adair.
In total, the illegal dumper received a citation with fines and fees totaling $750. Also, they will have to pay approximately $250 for impound and storage fees.
This is the second impounded vehicle for the week. On Wednesday, a Ford F150 was impounded in the 3500 Block of River Park Drive as a result of illegal dumping that had occurred in September in District 6.
Impounding any vehicle involved in illegal dumping was approved by the Louisville Metro Council when it amended the local ordinance on illegal dumping. The changes to the ordinance also called for fines and storage fees paid the dumper when the impounded vehicle was found.
