Digby County units monitoring evolving situation
Like their counterparts across the province and nationwide, municipal government leaders and staff in Digby County are focused on COVID-19.
Aside from urging their residents to do what they can to keep themselves and others safe, including proper and frequent hand-washing and social distancing, representatives of the county’s three municipal units were expressing another common theme — that the situation is evolving constantly.
“It can change so quickly,” said
Digby Mayor Ben Cleveland.
As Digby Warden Jimmy MacAlpine put it, “what’s normal today might not be normal in two days’ time.”
The Municipality of Digby closed its office to the public March 17 and the Town of Digby was to do the same with the town hall March 18.
The Municipality of Clare's municipal office was closed to the public as March 20. Staff are still reporting to work and residents are encouraged to contact municipal staff via telephone, email or social media.
Clare municipal council had a meeting scheduled for Wednesday evening. Normally, it would have been open to the public, but the plan was to conduct the March 18 session by conference call.
The Town of Digby has decided to have virtual council meetings for the next six weeks or so while the Municipality of Digby intends to do its meetings by telephone.
Clare council was expected to discuss how to proceed with its meetings, as well as other things related to the municipality’s coronavirus response, at its Wednesday night session.
Stéphane Cyr, the Municipality of Clare’s chief administrative officer, said this is budget preparation time so council will want to continue that work in the coming weeks, “but we want to make sure we are adhering to directives from the province and the federal government to be as cautious as possible, minimizing the risk to everyone involved.”
The word from all three units was that essential services would continue. Things like garbage pickup would go on as before.
Cleveland said residents are encouraged to consider other options, such as online, for bill payments rather than going to the town hall.
“If some are unable to do that, there’s no need to worry,” he said. “If you’re late with your bill, we’re not going to shut your water off or anything like that. There’ll be some leniency there.”
Regarding the response to the coronavirus, the mayor and warden said discussions were taking place to try to make sure the community is safe.
“We’re just ensuring that everybody’s safe and that we try to make sure that we comply with all the safety procedures put in place by the province,” said MacAlpine.
Contacted the morning of
March 18, he reiterated things can change rapidly.
“We’re going to be using our website to push out information,” he said.
As for information on COVID-19 in general, Cleveland urges people to make sure the information they’re getting is from reliable sources.
“I’m sure you’ve seen it on Facebook and I’ve seen it, people sharing articles and information that’s not correct about this virus,” he said. “Go to the provincial and federal websites ... stop focusing on a lot of that misinformation that’s being shared on Facebook.”
In Clare, judging by the number of people they’re seeing at the administration office, Cyr said it seems residents are staying home more, as they should.
“With everything going on, we’ve certainly seen a reduction in the amount of people coming to the municipal office,” he said. “In these circumstances, that’s a good thing.”