County Commission Chairman called an emergency meeting of the board for next Tuesday.
By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
Levy County Commission Chairman Matt Brooks Friday called an emergency meeting of the board next Tuesday after learning of the first positive Coronavirus case in the county.
The 64-year-old woman lives in the Bronson area.
“It’s an emergency meeting with the first case that’s going on. I feel it’s necessary for the entire commission to meet as a group and not wait another week and avoid the time-lapse; how is it going to affect our employees and just make sure our commission is up to speed on everything.”
The commission will meet at 9 a.m. in the auditorium of the Annex Building behind the Levy County Courthouse in Bronson. The Annex Building is the former Bronson High School and Elementary School. The building has been converted to a county office building.
The auditorium is large enough to allow social distancing between visitors attending the meeting. The Centers for Disease Control recommends spacing visitors six feet apart. The former school auditorium provides the needed seats for social distancing.
Brooks expressed concern that the Department of Emergency Management released information indicating the Coronavirus victim lived in the Bronson area. He is worried people will try to hone in on who it might be and attempt to identify her.
“People are home right now and they are just stirring a bunch of stuff up and it’s tough to respond to all of it,” he said.
Brooks said the county’s Emergency Management Department, Emergency Medical Services, Levy County Health Department and Levy County Sheriff’s Office are receiving a lot of calls from people who believe they are experiencing symptoms associated with the Coronavirus and the disease it causes – Covid-19.
“They are people who say I think I have it and I don’t want to hurt anyone,” Brooks said. “None of it is ill-intended. It’s rather reassuring for people to call and say ‘I may have it’ versus going about their usual business.”
Determining who should be tested for the virus is the part that is difficult to explain to people, Brooks said. Just because they think they have it doesn’t mean they should be tested. He said 225,000 tests kits were released by state government. “No one knows where. I will follow my gut and say it’s probably the hardest hit areas. They probably supplied more resources to those areas.”
But Brooks said Covid-19 causes unmistakable symptoms for those unfortunate victims that contract the disease.
“I spoke to some doctors. They said if you have it, it’s going to be 100 percent without a doubt. If it’s affecting you, you’re not even going to be texting or calling people on the phone, you’re going to need help,” he said. “The other part is they need to behave almost as if they have it and don’t want to transmit it versus behaving like they don’t want to get it. We’re trying to keep a sense of normalcy. It’s a crazy balance.”
People who don’t have the virus but think they do can tie up valuable resources. If an ambulance crew responds to someone who doesn’t have the virus, the call routes the crew away from people who might be in much greater need of assistance, according to Brooks.
Brooks said the Crab Festival that often brings thousands of visitors to East Williston from all over the state has been postponed to a later date due to the threat posed by the extremely contagious Coronavirus. He said he and Sheriff Bobby McCallum met with the Ministerial Faith Alliance Thursday. Representatives of the group agreed to cancel the event which typically occurs on the last Saturday in
“We were able to reach out to the Ministerial Faith Alliance. We met with them yesterday afternoon and they gave us a resounding yes. Let’s make sure everyone is safe,” Brooks said.
Brooks added that they met Friday with President Kenuel Gates and Vice President Levosier Denson of Next Generation, the organization that will be in charge of Crab Fest going forward. They met at the sheriff’s office.
“They have agreed that now is not the time to have a few thousand people in Williston,” Brooks said. “We’re extremely happy with that cooperation because with 2,900 something Coronavirus cases in Florida it wouldn’t take long with people coming from Orlando, Gainesville and Tampa into Williston to really increase the numbers.”
Brooks said all of the festivals in Cedar Key have been cancelled at this time. The Wild Hog Canoe Race, which occurs in April, has also been cancelled.
“Cedar Key is in a lockdown. They have gotten into a situation where they are barricading State Road 24 and are checking people coming out. They have created a lot of phone calls for us we haven’t wanted to take,” he said. “Everyone thinks, oh, it’s the county. The county did that.”
Brooks said he participates in calls every day to the mayors, elected officials and emergency officials. He said his biggest message to all the officials is to keep people calm as possible because as soon as people are panicked, “That’s when people make bad decisions and end up hurting other people inadvertently.” Brooks said people who don’t have an urgent need to leave their home should stay at home as much as possible.
“We also realize people need to work, so we’re not looking forward to any stay at home order in our county,” he said.
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Enterprise Reporting by Terry Witt March 27, 2020; Posted March 27, 2020
