By Carol Vaughn —
The Northampton County Board of Supervisors met via teleconference April 2, as the news came that the county had its second confirmed case of COVID-19.
“So, this is not a situation that we are going to be exempt from, and we shouldn’t expect this to be a short-term situation,” said Charles Kolakowski, Northampton County Administrator.
All non-essential hiring and discretionary spending without approval has been frozen in light of the pandemic, he said.
Additionally, he has asked the public school administration “to look at limiting spending, due to the probability of reduced revenue in the current year and in the year coming up.”
Door-to-door census follow up, for those residents who did not respond yet, will be delayed until sometime this summer.
Kolakowski said getting a full census count is important to the county. A committee set up to ensure residents are counted in the decennial census is looking at ways to encourage Post Office box holders, who did not get notification from the U. S. Census by mail, to respond.
Recreation areas including Kiptopeke State Park, the Eastern Shore National Wildlife Refuge, and Savage Neck Dunes remain open for day use only. The visitors center at the refuge is closed, Kolakowski said.
Northampton County is continuing to process permit applications and do inspections “as much as we can, in order to help projects to start or continue whenever possible,” he said.
The county received requests from the Holiday Inn Express and Hampton Inn Suites in Exmore, asking that their real estate and personal property taxes be waived during the pandemic. The board will consider those requests at a future meeting, Kolakowski said.
The board of supervisors approved sending a letter to short-term rental property owners strongly urging them to refrain from renting during the pandemic.
Supervisor Betsy Mapp said some people staying in short-term rentals are here to perform necessary work, such as Spectrum workers who are installing infrastructure for broadband.
Supervisor Dave Fauber recommended specifying that owners be urged not to rent to vacationers.
“What we are really after is not having an influx of outsiders beyond, perhaps, the necessary,” said Supervisor Dixon Leatherbury.
The unanimous vote gave permission to Kolakowski and Commonwealth’s Attorney Beverly Leatherbury to come up with language to that effect for the letter.
In a second vote, the board approved sending a letter to Gov. Ralph Northam asking for flexibility to hold routine public meetings electronically for up to six months — that is, meetings other than those needed to deal specifically with the COVID-19 pandemic.
A state declaration of emergency in March authorized electronic meetings of public bodies to deal with COVID-19-related matters.
“If this extends into June…we need to have some flexibility in keeping meetings going. My primary concern is allowing the functioning of, not only the board of supervisors, but the planning commission, the board of zoning appeals, and other boards which issue permits to allow for projects to start and/or continue, so we can continue some kind of activity going on in the county as far as construction and economic development,” Kolakowski said.
The draft letter states, in part, “The problem will be that, very soon, the failure of cities, towns, and counties to act on routine public business, such as permits, leases, and zoning requests, will slow down or prevent an economic recovery we will so badly need.”
The Northampton board plans to hold weekly electronic meetings, for the time being, on Thursdays at 4 p.m.
Northampton Sheriff’s update
Sheriff David Doughty told the board of supervisors that visitation at the Eastern Shore Regional Jail continues to be suspended. Inmates are being given two free stamps weekly to send letters, and the sheriff’s office is working on providing a temporary video visitation option and allowing one phone call per week for indigent inmates, he said.
Weekend jail time service is suspended until further notice due to the pandemic, and expanded bond consideration is being given to people newly arrested for offenses that do not pose a danger to the public, according to Doughty.
New inmates are being kept in a separate area of the jail for a 15-day quarantine.
The only visitors allowed inside the jail are attorneys and medical workers — and they must wear a mask and gloves and have their temperature checked.
Jail employees also undergo a temperature check upon entry for their work shift. Staff wear gloves and masks when they do their rounds.
All common areas in the jail are being frequently sanitized, Doughty said.
“If a case does occur, we do have medical quarantine cells to accommodate,” he said.
The sheriff’s office, on the patrol side, has suspended all secondary employment and unnecessary overtime.
Deputies are handing non-emergency calls for service by telephone where possible.
The sheriff’s office itself is restricting entry to employees only.
The office is running low on personal protective equipment, Doughty said.
The sheriff’s office continues to monitor violations of the statewide 10-or-more gathering prohibition, Doughty said.
Northampton EMS update
Hollye Carpenter, Northampton EMS Director, told the board of supervisors the 911 dispatch center is screening all callers to determine whether first responders could potentially be exposed to the coronavirus.
Responders are using appropriate personal protective equipment.
“We are running low on gowns and N-95 masks,” she said, noting a request for more protective equipment has been made to the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.
Employees in the department are undergoing temperature checks and symptom checks every six hours during their shift, Carpenter said.
“We have transported two positive cases without any quarantine for our providers,” she said.
Another provider was quarantined earlier because of showing possible symptoms of the virus, but that person tested negative, according to Carpenter.
Staffing could become a challenge “if we start having people that are quarantined or become sick,” she said, noting that Northampton EMS shares many employees with Accomack County and Chincoteague.
