One day after a state of local emergency was declared in Islamorada, council members met on March 17 to discuss a plan forward with village facilities and meetings.
During the meeting called by Mayor Mike Forster, council members agreed to keep all parks and facilities open, so long as CDC recommendations are followed by the public, including group sizes of 10 or fewer and social distancing. At Founders Park, measures are being taken to clean fitness park and playground equipment, as well as picnic tables and the park office.
Sea Oats Beach, Anne’s Beach and the Fills remain open. Councilman Ken Davis said fewer places for people to go could mean more congregating in one place.
“You see people at Founders and they’re together, chances are they’ll be together at their house or in their van,” he said. “I think everybody is trying to maintain that they know who they’re with. They don’t want to be with strangers, they don’t want to hang with people they’re not familiar with.”
While daily cleanings are going on at village offices, residents looking to submit applications and pay bills to building, planning or code are encouraged to use the CityView Portal.
Council also agreed to follow the governor’s orders regarding a 50 percent capacity inside restaurants. Forster, who’s looking to reduce his seating at Mangrove Mike’s to accommodate new measures, spoke in favor of keeping local restaurant doors open.
“Grocery stores can’t keep up,” he said. “That would put 10 times the burden (on people) if restaurants closed too.”
“Grocery stores can’t keep up. That would put 10 times the burden (on people) if restaurants closed too.”
— Islamorada Mayor Mike Forster
Fire Chief Terry Abel serves as the village’s incident commander. He said the village is in level 3, which is the monitoring phase. Abel said the village is in normal operations for now, unless “something related to COVID-19 hits here.”
On the emergency response side, Abel said protocols are in place to protect first responders in case a patient has symptoms of the coronavirus.
All village committee meetings have been canceled, as well as the March 26 council meeting.
