Dear Community Leaders and Members of Anne Arundel County,
Good morning, I hope that you and your loved ones are staying healthy and are all implementing social distancing and other best practices that will help slow the spread of COVID-19.
This past Saturday, County Executive Pittman held a Virtual Town Hall on COVID-19 in order to hear directly from you and to provide updates on the County's preparations and response. If you missed it, you can watch the recording
HERE
. These Virtual Town Halls will happen weekly on Saturdays at 11 a.m. You can submit questions ahead of time by emailing them to
[email protected]
.
We will also be monitoring the comments on Facebook during the event and do our best to answer the questions posted there as well.
We have created central places where you can find information on the County's response to the crisis.
- All actions taken by the county government can be found HERE
- All cancellations of county events and programs are being cataloged HERE
We believe that your COVID-19 health-related questions should be answered by doctors and scientists. Please direct your health related questions to the following places:
County Executive Pittman is taking actions to protect all county residents from this pandemic, especially those of us who are most at-risk. That is why, among other things, he has suspended all water shutoffs and late fees during the state of emergency, and the county will not be enforcing evictions in public housing during the state of emergency.
The County Executive supports the additional actions taken by the governor today that will enforce consistent actions across that state and will help save the lives of many Marylanders during this public health emergency. The actions the governor took today include:
- Shutting down all bars, restaurants, movie theaters, and gyms across the state, effective today at 5 p.m. while still allowing drive-through, carry-out, and food delivery services.
- Prohibiting any social, community, religious, recreational, sports gatherings, or other events of more than 50 people in close proximity in all venues across Maryland.
- Prohibiting utilities, including electric, gas, water, sewer, phone, cable TV, and internet service provider companies from shutting off service to any residential customers or charging them late fees during the state of emergency.
- Prohibiting eviction of any tenet during the state of emergency.
- Providing 3 meals and a snack a day to students.
The County Council meeting tonight will not be open to the public. They will meet briefly to pass emergency legislation to expand the civil emergency period that the County Executive declared on March 13th and they will be briefed by the County Health Officer, Dr. Nilesh Kalyanaraman. They will not vote on any other legislation this evening. Read the full statement by the Council Chairman
HERE.
Another key action the County Executive has taken is to waive the entry fees to all of our regional parks, making them accessible for everyone to enjoy during this time when open space is needed. We hope you can get outside and enjoy some fresh air in our parks this spring, while still following social distancing guidelines.This idea came directly from a comment during our first Virtual Town Hall, was supported by many town hall viewers, reviewed by the Department of Recreation and Parks staff while the Town Hall was in session, and approved by the County Executive immediately at the conclusion of the event. This is a great example of community engagement and government responsiveness at work, which is a great transition to my last point.
Please keep us informed.
We need to hear about your challenges and your plans during this massive community effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. We understand that it is the families with the fewest resources, as well as the small businesses that employ them, that will be hit the hardest. We have a team formed to assess our safety net and propose emergency measures to strengthen it. Help us identify the gaps in service so that we can put local government to work filling them.
Best,
James Kitchin
Office of the County Executive
Director, CECS
