Wondering where you might find paper towels still on the shelves? Or maybe where you can get take-out dinner on a Monday night in the middle of a pandemic?
Cobb County has created two tools residents can use to keep their neighbors informed about what’s available at local grocery stores and which restaurants offer delivery or carry-out services.
The county's Geographic Information Systems department has launched two maps compiled by crowd-sourced information from users about grocery store supplies and how restaurants are serving their customers. Residents can view the maps on the county's website, the Cobb County Covid-19 community hub, which lists community resources and information on the outbreak.
Jennifer Lana, the county’s GIS manager, said the tools allow residents to “help us get the word out” about what citizens should expect from restaurants and stores.
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“We wanted to somehow give our citizens a way to report back and have access to some of those essential things,” she said.
Anyone can access the maps using a phone, tablet or device. For the grocery store map, residents will be asked to fill out a form with the name and address of the store, the date and time when they visited, whether staff and customers were practicing social distancing, how crowded the store was, and the availability of medicine, food, cleaning supplies and paper products, along with other useful information.
The restaurant survey lists basic information on restaurants, detailing when the users visited and whether the eatery provides online ordering, carry-out or delivery services.
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As of Tuesday, the county’s grocery store survey has had more than 400 submissions and over 50 submitted information for the restaurant map, said County Commissioner Bob Ott, who asked the county’s department of geographic information systems if it could create the maps.
“The whole thing was designed to help people with social distancing and not have to go out unnecessarily,” Ott said.
Lana said the county’s online COVID-19 hub and the maps have been viewed more than 100,000 times. She said the information about trails, zoning or parcel number look-up don’t come close to the amount of interest shown in the new maps.
“It has, by far exceeded, anything we thought we could do, which is great because we are reaching out to the people,” she said.
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