Update from Town Hall - September 28, 2020


COVID-19 Update

As many of you have no doubt heard or read, our Governor, Ron DeSantis, has signed an order lifting all COVID-19 related restrictions except the wearing of masks and the maintaining of six-foot social distancing. The order was effective immediately and contains a provision that eliminates the authority of municipalities to enact more stringent local restrictions.

Accordingly, the Town is taking the following actions:

  • The Town Hall parking lot will be opened to unrestricted parking.

  • Appointments will no longer be required for the Town Hall business. However, social distancing and wearing a mask will be required. This means that only one person will be allowed in Town Hall; others will wait outside standing at designated social distancing marks. A buzz-in system will be placed on the entrance door to ensure no more than one person is in our small foyer at the same time. The counter will be sanitized after each visitor departs.  There will be a Town Hall business drop-off box outside if you do not want to wait.

  • Due to sanitation requirements after each use (especially common areas like restrooms and kitchen facilities), the Town Hall meeting chamber will not be available for use by the Town civic organizations. We will wait for the virus infections to subside a bit more before taking this step.
     
  • The Community Center will be open for use, both upstairs and downstairs. Given that social distancing must be maintained (which means maintain a six-foot radius around folks), the capacity of the second floor will be limited to 50 people. If use is during normal Town Staff working hours, Town Public Works staff will handle set up, break down and sanitization for Town Civic groups. If events are after hours or on weekends, Image Cleaning Company will need to be contracted by the Civic Groups to handle breakdown and cleaning /sanitation. The cost for breakdown, cleaning, and sanitation for the second floor is $185 and for the downstairs, $145. We realized this is a bit of a change, but the Public Works staff does not want to work voluntary overtime. 

  • The weekly church service can resume beginning today September 28th. They will be responsible for set-up, breakdown, and sanitation. 

  • To help us control parking in the beach parking lot by folks who did not purchase a permit, we are asking the Civic group to design a parking pass for use by those attending your meetings. This will not apply to large gatherings, like the Pancake Breakfast or Chowder Tasting, and so on, but rather the smaller gathering, like Board meetings, card parties, book clubs, etc. Town Hall will help with printing if required. Since the new permits have been issued, the PBSO has issued 100 beach lot parking tickets since early July!

  • And, beginning in October, Town Public meetings will be open to a limited number of resident attendees. We are in the process of determining the number, based on social distancing requirements. Once the number is determined, attendance will be on a first-come basis. For the Town Civic Groups, please coordinate your setup, break-down, and cleaning/sanitation requirements with Sandi Lue at Town Hall. If you have any questions, please call Town Hall.

As for COVID-19 itself, things are looking up just a bit.  The County testing positivity rate is down at the 4% range (from the high teens several months ago). Hospitalization rates are back to near normal and in our small Town we have had only three known cases, all several months back.
In response to questions from residents regarding vote-by-mail, please see response below from the Supervisor of Elections office.


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Drop it off at one of our Early Voting locations during early voting hours. Each Early Voting location will have a secure drop box for voters who have voted their Vote-by-Mail ballot and prefer to drop it off instead of sending it in the mail. Do not drop it off at Town Hall.

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