Government leaders recount decision making in coronavirus pandemic

From anticipated budget cuts and decreased income tax revenue to cancelation of city activities and events, Lorain County’s municipalities felt the impact of the novel coronavirus starting last March.

Mayors from around the county are now reflecting on decisions made and emotions felt this time last year, when Gov. Mike DeWine’s regulations and shutdowns were first ramping up.

Amherst

Even through the first few months of the pandemic, Amherst Mayor Mark Costilow said his administration and city staff were calm, cool and collected.

“I don’t think anyone over-reacted,” he said. “No one was overly emotional.”

Costilow said the main focus was safety for the city, with challenges involving implementing new protocols and policies to keep residents and employees safe.

“We probably started adapting and making changes right away,” he said.

In those early months, Costilow said the city started implementing remote working and hybrid schedules and staggered oncall shifts, something that didn’t go unnoticed by the city’s crews.

“The employees were extremely appreciative of that,” he said.

As far as needing additional guidance, Costilow said he feels the city was able to make do with what was given to it.

“Not a whole lot of intervention was needed,” he said.

Costilow said after intensive reflection, there’s nothing that the city could have done differently.

“I have looked back constantly, and truly don’t see anything to do differently,” he said.

Elyria

In his State of the City Address, Elyria Mayor Frank Whitfield recounted the events of 2020 and included a photo of him wearing a suit and tie, but lying on the floor with his arms stretched out.

The caption: “Not intimidated, but a little tired …”

The year 2020 was full of challenge and controversy, Whitfield said. He noted he and his staff all lost people close to them, due to COVID-19.

Assessing the last year, Whitfield asked: Did we meet or miss the moment?

In March 2020, the Ohio Department of Health ordered nonessential workers to stay home. It changed the world for Elyria residents and others, Whitfield said.

The elderly and those with immune system compromises were told they would be most at risk.

“And our response was, we care,” Whitfield said.

The city administration reached out to faithbased organizations to distribute food to seniors and he credited Church of the Open Door, House of Healing and the United Methodist Church for collaborating to deliver 5,754 food boxes in 2020, with another 772 delivered so far in 2021.

Elyria City Hall became the community center of Lorain County, Whitfield said.

Elyria was the first city in Ohio to host pop-up COVID-19 testing, due to its partnership with Lorain County Health & Dentistry, the state of Ohio and the Ohio National Guard, Whitfield said.

You really don’t see what someone is made of until there’s a challenge, Whitfield said, adding that the past year has shown what leadership can look like, should look like and what it doesn’t look like.

“We’ve seen people deny science, we’ve seen people deny election results, we’ve seen all kind of denial,”

Whitfield said. “We’ve seen people run from the fire instead of to the fire. And I’m just proud of how our staff and our team has really stepped up to meet the moment. But it hasn’t been easy and I’m thankful to my team, I’m thankful to my family for their support.”

Lorain

Lorain Mayor Jack Bradley credited Lorain County Public Health and county Health Commissioner Dave Covell for sounding the early warnings about the novel coronavirus.

In the mayor’s office on the seventh floor of Lorain City Hall, the municipal concern dealt with potential loss of city services.

“If it gets into a department and spreads, oftentimes it’s spreading rapidly,” Bradley said, noting that most of the mayors and managers of Lorain County depended on the public health department for guidance, he said.

The prospect of a devastating virus with no medical procedures to treat it were doubly concerning, Bradley said. If COVID-19 were to spread in the police, fire or municipal departments and workers

were unable to report for duty, it was unclear what would happen in an emergency, he said.

On March 15, Bradley said he learned of a Lorain police officer testing positive for COVID-19. City Hall closed to the public the next day.

“You can’t be prepared for something like this,” Bradley said. “If you make a mistake, you try to make a mistake that protects the highest number of people.”

This year, Lorain’s Central Service Complex was the site of a drive-thru COVID-19 vaccine clinic by Lorain County Public Health.

That building was a city project that continued despite the novel coronavirus pandemic. Now it will be available whenever Lorain County Public Health needs it for mass vaccinations, the mayor said.

Bradley recalled visiting the new center with his granddaughter during the open house in September last year. It is off the main roads and has the room for cars to park.

“When I saw it, COVID was already here and I thought, what a great place for a drive-thru,” he said.

Bradley received his first

dose of the Moderna vaccine on Feb. 24 and will get his second shot on March 24.

“I’m 71 years old, so I didn’t jump any lines,” he said with a laugh.

Vermilion

Vermilion Mayor Jim Forthofer said the city was first feeling the severity of the pandemic when DeWine starting closing non-essential businesses and restaurants mid-March.

“That got everyone’s attention,” he said. “After that there was a lot of confusion.

It really caused people to search for who’s in charge.”

That responsibility refers to who in the city was going to make decisions on which events to cancel, what mandates to enforce and who would be enforcing them.

With much of that responsibility coming down to the mayor, Forthofer said he wishes there was more guidance from the state and federal levels to ease some of that burden from municipalities.

“That was a bit of a limbo,” he said. “It put us in an awkward situation.”

Forthofer said that while there was pushback in the early months of the pandemic,

he was also receiving complaints from residents about issuing businesses citations.

“It’s none of my business,” he said. “That is a health department function.”

By summer, the Erie County Health Department began enforcing more regulations and issuing citations, which eased some of that local anxiety, according to Forthofer.

Overall, he said the attitudes of local businesses, especially in the downtown area, kept them afloat through the hardest parts of the pandemic.

Through it all, Forthofer said he wouldn’t change anything about Vermilion’s reaction to the pandemic.

“I don’t regret what we did,” he said. “It was certainly unfortunate, but it was necessary.”

COURTESY Plastic barriers have been installed in the Amherst City Council Chambers in town hall, 206S. Main St. in Amherst. For the first time since the pandemic started, council members met March 8in the chambers.