Page last updated on September 7, 2021 at 12:55 pm
Welcome fellow Bloomingtonians. This is John Hamilton, your mayor, talking to you a little bit about the coronavirus and what's coming at us. It's the afternoon of Wednesday, March 18th. I give that detail in part because things are happening quickly and we're responding rapidly and the world around us is changing rapidly. I wanted to share, we actually did a press release today and I just kind of wanted to share some of the essence of that with you, appreciating how important it is.
First, you should know I and other city officials are meeting regularly, coordinating with key leadership in the community, particularly the health leadership from the county health department and Indiana University Health system as well as county government leaders and Indiana University and other local school corporations to make sure we are all talking together. We actually had a meeting this afternoon, just to coordinate, update and that's really important and it's important you know that that's happening. We're working together on that.
Another thing the release mentions is we've actually created a continuity of city government task force. I've asked Deputy Mayor Renneisen and Human Resource Director Shaw, to co-lead this effort to make sure as a city we are doing everything we can and everything we should to make sure our services keep going amid these challenges. The press release has a lot of details in it, but it reminds us, like last week, we announced that we were going to be suspending a lot of large city meetings, including boards and commissions. We're also closing some facilities like Twin Lakes Rec Center and Banneker and Allison-Jukebox. All of these measures are done, social distancing in our work and et cetera. All of this is done to help diminish the speed and the extent of the transmission of this virus. And like many of you, we're doing personal social distancing and I encourage you all to do that and check the health websites too.
Today we were sharing some of the specific, there are dozens of things happening in city government to improve and protect services while we keep providing those services from the police department changing how its officers interact. If one gets sick, we don't get others sick, they're so important. Similar with the fire department or changes at the utility water department, to make sure we're protecting our water source and not doing any disconnects. And again, making sure that our system is there. The Bloomington Transit, special cleaning of all the buses as well as places like parking. We're actually changing the parking rules. We announced to give a two hour grace period for everybody.
It is a rapidly evolving situation. Again, this is Wednesday afternoon, the 18th. We continue to monitor this. Remember, we're in a marathon and not a sprint We're going to get through this. This is a serious health pandemic that is challenging us and the country and the world. We will get through it. We're working hard to make sure that that's as smooth as it can be, as safe as it can be. All of us have a part to play and I just wanted you to know the city workers and city government is very focused on trying to make sure we do the right thing. We will get through it together. So watch out for each other. Take care of each other and I'll be in touch again soon. Thanks very much.
