Leaders drawing up list to support businesses

Bethel Park municipal manager Laurence Christian said at a virtual meeting Monday that administrators are compiling a list to help “bring awareness to small businesses” in the area.Businesses and restaurants wanting to be included in the list can email kindness@bethelpark.net or go to www. bethelpark. net or www. facebook. com/ Bethel Park Municipality/ for information. Council members Mark O’Brien and Dr. Timothy Campbell also talked about the impact of the coronavirus as well as the vaccine.“For me and my family, the experience has been a very bad dream,” Mr. O’Brien said.But with the rollout of the vaccine, he said, “today is a truly great day.”“I personally will be taking this vaccine,” he said. “I ask all of you — everyone out there — to take a deep breath and search for information and get the right information and make a decision to join me to get this vaccine.”Dr. Campbell, a physician and a member of the Federal Disaster Management Assistance Team, hailed the development of the vaccine.“Since the very beginning of this pandemic, there were a lot of unknowns. There were a lot of things that we didn’t understand about the coronavirus and its impact,” Dr. Campbell said. However, he said, “we’ve made wonderful, wonderful strides with it.”“I plan on getting it as well,” Dr. Campbell said. “It’s risk versus benefit, and the benefit of the vaccine far, by far, by far outweighs the risk of taking it.”He said that while people can take a “bit of a collective sigh,” he added of the pandemic, “It’s certainly not over yet. We’ve got a lot of work to do in the next three to four months, but there’s some glimmer. There’s some light at the end of the tunnel.”