With the lifting of the stay at home order, for all but the medically fragile and elderly, on Thursday, many may be wondering when the city will reopen the city and public facilities.
City Manager Lee Gilmour explained that the city is hesitant to give any specific dates or deadlines due to uncertainty concerning public health situations, future regulatory requirements and economic environments.
Gilmour said that the reopening of city facilities depends on what the facilities are. Gilmour shared that from an operational standpoint, all activities of the city are working, other than leisure services, which he explained will probably activate as long as certain benchmarks are met, which also applies to all facilities.
“The mayor has directed there be a series of benchmarks that need to be examined or reviewed before we make any decision,” Gilmour said, further explaining that these benchmarks include things such as the decisions of the school system and Georgia National Fair Grounds, as well as the data for the county, such as the number of new cases of COVID-19, hospitalizations due to the virus, as well as fatalities and direction from public health officials. Gilmour shared that the benchmarks and parameters for the city’s decisions follow the recommendations and format set by the federal government. Mayor Randall Walker later added that many of these benchmarks and parameters interact with each other, which is a factor in why the city is not giving definitive dates.
“We’re like everybody else, we want to get back up and running and doing things, but we want to do it in a measured approach, and making sure that we drive that on data,” said Walker.
Gilmour also explained that the reopening plan will also be influenced by executive orders from Governor Bryan Kemp, giving the example that if mass gatherings are still prohibited, then facilities like the Perry Arts Center, Worrall Center and city events will not be available.
“We’re paying a lot of attention to the executive orders and understanding the intent and abiding by that,” Walker explained.
Gilmour said that facilities like City Hall and others with public access depend on what the governor says and what mayor and council are comfortable with.
“I’m not speaking for mayor and council, but I am anticipating that it will probably involve, for some period of time, requirements for masks and social distancing,” Gilmour said, with Walker expanding on his point that there may be a limitation on the number of individuals allowed into a facility at a time.
According to Gilmour, though there have been no definitive decisions made, there may also be some functions provided by the city that may remain remote based on feedback from citizens like online service, mail-in and access by appointment. Gilmour also mentioned the notion that there maybe service that remain strictly with the public, giving the example that to file some types of basic police reports, especially those of private entity versus private entity, a form may be sent out to the filing party to fill out rather than an officer physically responding. He added that these options are being looked at as long as there is no detriment in providing service to citizens.
Changes in the matters of city employees may be on the horizon. According to Gilmour, there may be more telecommuting for those whose positions would make it viable to do so. He also explained that other adjustments might be made to maintain social distancing standards. Gilmour stated that certain measures are going to continue, such as employees having their temperatures checked.
Walker said that there might be things that could be learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and used to run the city more efficiently and effectively.
“We’ve found that we can do things differently and maybe even more successfully during this period of how we take care of business here. So I think that we’ll be taking a look at, are there any [lessons] out of the COVID-19 as well,” Walker said.
Walker explained that the situation of reopening is being assessed on a day to day basis with what is happening with health care in the county, and that the city is in constant contact with Robins Air Force Base, the cities of Centerville and Warner Robins, and the county government to coordinate. From his standpoint, Walker believes all are coordinated.
Gilmour further explained that each entity would have their own needs when it comes to reopening, and their own schedules for what each one needs to do. Gilmour also noted that the decisions of one entity could impact others, citing the decisions of the county relative to the detention center, which impacts the municipalities’ operations as a result.
Gilmour informed that Perry Fire Chief Lee Parker sends the latest data on COVID-19 for Houston County to city officials for the individual week every Wednesday and it is used as a factor which influences the city’s decisions.
According to Walker, most operations of the city are unchanged, and departments such as the police and fire departments, and public works, have been running at full force.
“Many of the functions [and] services that we provide to our citizens have not been curtailed at all. So what you’ll see is we made some conscious decisions very early on of removing people from harm’s way and letting them telecommute, letting them do shift alternations… The city never slowed down,” Walker explained. He further noted the city made the effort to provide personal protective equipment and ensure that rules and regulations were understood, and added that employees have done a good job of abiding by them.
As far as economic impact, Gilmour said that he is assuming that there will be less revenue from the city’s hotel/motel tax, citing travel being down nationwide, and the closing of the Georgia National Fair Grounds. Walker further explained this point sharing that he believed that tourism would have the greatest impact. Walker said that one million people, 500,000 of those being outside of the fair, come to the city yearly, filling hotel rooms and eating at Perry’s restaurants. Walker said if they do not come to visit, the hotel/motel tax would be affected.
“People’s comfort level of getting back into a large gathering; that’s going to drive a lot as to what people decide and the situation that they decide they’re willing to put themselves back into,” Walker shared, adding that he, council and Gilmour have been observing these issues for the last four weeks and that there has been an ongoing dialogue of the budget for next year and potential short falls, as well as how to continue to provide the same quality of service that Walker said the city is known for.
Gilmour brought the notion that though it may be alright to operate under guidelines given, there may not be funding for events like Food Truck Fridays or the Arts Center may open, but no rentals requested. Another example given was that of Leisure Services’ and sports leagues, in which Gilmour mused that there may be a situation in which there is a readiness of the community to participate, or citizens will not be yet prepared for extra interaction.
Walker said that many decisions concerning the department of Leisure Services will be impacted by the school in the form of regulations regarding extracurricular activities.
Gilmour said that there have been some definitive deadlines given, such as the due date to have city accounts—like water bills—brought up to current. These deadlines are: for residential accounts, June 1, and for nonresidential accounts, July 1.
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