Decatur is still holding its regular commission meeting, 7:30 p.m., March 16 at City Hall, 509 North McDonough Street, and it remains open to the public.
But in her remarks preceding the March 16 agenda notes, City Manager Andrea Arnold writes, "We strongly encourage interested parties to view the live broadcast of the Decatur City Commission at https://www.decaturga.com/citycommission/page/streaming-video.
She added that any public comments on agenda items and request and petitions should be submitted, not at the meeting but to her at andrea.arnold@decaturga.com by 5 p.m. Monday (March 16).
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The city recently cancelled two longstanding community meetings: last week’s input session for proposed traffic calming concepts in the Parkwoods neighborhood and the March 25 open house and workshop for proposed railroad crossing improvements at Atlanta Avenue. Neither has been rescheduled.
Arnold told the AJC the city is still scheduling staff meetings of small gatherings, but limits 10 to a room. The city is also providing all its services except for those events emanating from the Active Living Department. Although parks and playgrounds remain open, all gyms are closed, while after school and other recreational programs have been temporarily shuttered.
Arnold said that Decatur has an 18-person cross-department Emergency Response Team, with Fire Chief Toni Washington as director and City Clerk Meredith Roark as deputy director.
The ERT typically deals with weather-related events like snow and ice storms. As Arnold points out, “Though we have a pandemic plan, there is no playbook for [Coronavirus Disease], so we are relying on health professionals. We are receiving regular information from [the Center for Disease Control] and we’re participating in twice-weekly conference calls the [DeKalb County Board of Health].”
UPDATE:
Late Sunday night this was posted by Linda Harris, Decatur’s Assistant City Manager for Community and Economic Development:
Recognizing the need to govern the City while also following the guidance from public health officials for responsible social distancing, at their Monday, March 16 meeting, the Decatur City Commissioners will limit their participation to a quorum of three City Commission members, encourage community members to watch the meeting live online and submit any questions and comments to be considered at the meeting to the City Manager in advance of the meeting. Mayor Patti Garrett stated, “We are taking the guidance for social distancing seriously and encourage all residents to do the same in an effort to limit the spread of COVID-19.”
For future City Commission meetings, the City plans to have technology in place to allow community members to participate remotely during the meetings. The Mayor has been working closely with State officials, the Georgia Municipal Association, DeKalb County, the DeKalb County Health Department, and the Mayors in the DeKalb Municipal Association to ensure a coordinated community effort to the COVID-19 outbreak. Mayor Garrett will provide more detail about the City’s coordinated response during Monday’s City Commission meeting.
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