Page last updated on September 7, 2021 at 12:58 pm
Hello fellow Bloomingtonians, it's Mayor John Hamilton again. I just wanted to give you an update. It's Friday afternoon, March 20th and we're in a dynamic situation. I do appreciate all that is happening in the community. These are very unusual times. There's a lot going on. So many people are raising their hands and offering to help and that's a great thing.
A number of updates, I know you can get these on the news and encourage you to do so, but locally IU's canceled its commencement. You've probably heard that by now. You should know that I, along with other civic leaders, government health department, health system, hospitals, school corporations, are meeting regularly along with nonprofit organizations, businesses. There are a lot of virtual meetings happening to try to coordinate all of this. Among the big announcements over the last couple of days, of course, public schools, and private schools, K-12 around the state have been closed through May 1st. Tax filing dates are delayed to three months.
We also have SBA approval for loans for small businesses to apply to. I know I'm just checking my list here. The no essential utilities will be doing shutoffs. That's a state order for gas, electric, et cetera, as well as foreclosures and evictions. Those are on hold to protect everybody from getting any difficulties that way. Extended the state emergency for another 30 days I think, and a number of other things that you can check as we go forward.
I do want to report the city government continues to work. Our employees are on the job. We're,of course, doing a lot of things a little differently in order to protect our employees, but we're also knowing how important a lot of the services are. And just as a reminder, last night we had a lot of storms through the city and a utility department had to get out and fix a bunch of lift stations, which they did. The streets department had to send people out to fix signals that got knocked out, which they did. And the fire department had to go out to save two people in a tent in a flooded stream. They were going to get swamped out and run away, and who knows what else happened, and the fire department got him out of there safely last night. So those 24/7 operations continue to happen and I'm really proud of them and thank a city employee if you see them. Remotely, not too close.
We have challenges ahead of us, I know you see the news. It's so important that you continue to protect yourself and your family. Thank you for doing that, following the health guidelines. You can see them on the CDC website about social distancing and particularly people with risky conditions or older folks. You can go to our city website. There's lots of information there too for the Bloomington website on the Covid situation. Stay safe, stay calm. We will get this and I'll be in touch with you regularly. We really appreciate the community coming together as we do. We've got challenges ahead of us. We're in a marathon, not a sprint. Take deep breaths and thank you for caring for your city and for each other. Talk to you again soon.
