Give your sweetheart a song for Valentine’s Day

A unique virtual Singing Valentine is available this year from the Silk City Chorus, which will deliver, worldwide, at no charge.

Senders can surprise her or him by sending a personalized email Valentine greeting along with two love songs sung in magnificent four-part harmony, Feb. 14.

The award-winning Silk City Chorus and MOSAIC, a chorus of mixed voices, are delivering “Singing Valentines.”

Each email will include a personal greeting to be enjoyed while listening to two love songs.

Valentines this year are free of charge; donations are welcome.

To arrange your singing valentine, visit silkcitychorus.org.

Noble Horizons remains free of COVID-19

SALISBURY — Administrator Bill Pond announced that Noble Horizons is one of only 3 senior living/nursing homes in Connecticut who were able to keep their residents free of the COVID-19 virus over the past 12 months.

“Our main mission at Noble is to keep our residents as healthy, safe, and happy as possible — under any circumstances,” said Pond. “The collective commitment of our entire team, including residents, family and community members made it possible to achieve this milestone; they respected and embraced the necessary safety measures.”

Noble Horizons made the very tough decision to not admit any COVID positive residents or patients to its campus during the past 12 months. “We knew financially it wouldn’t be easy, but for us, ethically it was the right thing to do,” said Pond. “When the lives of others are dependent upon your commitment to protect and safeguard them, you tend to look beyond the balance sheet and focus on what matters – for us that was and remains those who’ve entrusted their care to us here at Noble.”

By following Noble’s strict safety protocols as well as CDC and DPH guidelines, Noble created nationally recognized safe visitation centers to keep families as close as possible, instituted twice daily screening of all staff members, carefully built up a substantial inventory of PPE to keep all Noble community members safe, and stationed a check system at its entrance. It also expanded communication opportunities between residents and families with the purchase of several new i-pads and the installation of fiber optics to upgrade its wi-fi network.

As of this date 100 percent of Noble residents have been fully vaccinated. “I’m seeing some light at the end of the tunnel,” Pond said. “With our most vulnerable vaccinated, and overall infection rates dropping — I’m hopeful that 2021 will continue to improve.” When asked what improvements he hopes to see, he explained that the DPH and CDC will continue to guide policies. “I don’t have a crystal ball but it depends on the infection rates in our area and the effectiveness of the vaccine — but I can tell you the vaccines are a HUGE step in the right direction. We are all breathing a bit easier and have hope for a brighter 2021.”

More information is available at www.noblehorizons.org or 860-435-9851.

Author, historian to discuss early electricity

Author and Local Historian Bernard Drew will present “Early Electrification in Great Barrington and Salisbury,” on Zoom at 4 p.m. Feb. 13.

To register for this free program, call 860-435-2838 or check event page at scovillelibrary.org.

From the library: The story of electrification is a long journey of inventors, ideas and experiments that stretch further back in the 19th century than many people realize. One of the most significant events famously occurred in the Berkshires. In 1886, inventor William Stanley ran wires from an old rubberware factory in Great Barrington and electrified lights in offices and stores on one end of Main Street, demonstrating the viability of his alternating current transformer — two weeks after a directcurrent system from the mansion Kellogg Terrace brightened the other end of Main Street. This was the first time anywhere that one could witness the two competing systems at work — kicking off the Battle of the Currents between Stanley (AC), working for George Westinghouse, and Edison and his electric company (DC) which eventually became General Electric. Amongst his many patents Stanley later invented the all steel vacuum thermos, manufactured in Great Barrington for many years. Local historian Bernard Drew details this significant Berkshire history on Zoom for the Scoville Memorial Library on Saturday, February 13 at 4:00 pm. Drew has written more than two dozen local history books, a newspaper columnist for 20 years, while professionally he was a long time senior associate editor of the Lakeville Journal newspapers.

Perhaps less well known is a skirmish of a different sort which came a few years later, downriver in Salisbury. Alternating current by now prevailed and local politician “Boss” John H. Roraback established Berkshire Power Company. and constructed a power station on the Housatonic River in Weatogue, east Salisbury, in 1905.

However the dam backed river water so high, it flooded farmland in Salisbury and as far upstream as the upper covered bridge in Sheffield. This launched an at-times bitter two-state confrontation. Register for the program at the Scoville Memorial Library's website.