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Friday's Facebook Town Hall, where Katie Cristol, Public Health Director, Emergency Services lead, and I answered questions from Arlington Residents
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Friends,
Over the past 8 days since I reported on Arlington joining the other large Counties and Alexandria in staying home at "Phase Zero", I have been busy with two sessions of the County Board, a facebook town hall on Friday, and there are updates for you on the Capital Improvement Plan and our Commissions work.
Before I jump in, I want to give you the link to help the Gutshalls. An education fund has been set up--please contribute if and as you are able.
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First, I want to remind you that COVID 19 is changing much of how we work this year and it is increasingly clear that it will change our economy for years to come. We have changed our Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) significantly from the traditional 10 year planning process that we do every two years. We will only do a CIP for the year to come--what we must build--and then come back to capital planning next year.
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Second, I want to share with you where we are on COVID 19 response. We have lost 81 people, of whom 64 are over 70 years old. As far as cases, we have 1,728 cases and have been seeing plateaued, but variable growth of 25 to 70 case over the past week.
Social distancing is working, but the exponential growth from the pockets of infections has led to that steady number of cases. Hospitalizations in Arlington have been down slightly, but a clear pattern has not emerged. We have the PPE, bed space, and ventilators to serve those who are sick for the foreseeable future (at least 4 weeks unless renewed significant growth in infections). Look at the data dashboard below for more information.
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I continue to be very concerned about senior serving institutions, such as nursing homes or independent living centers. Dr. Varghese, Arlington's Public Health Director has asked for Point of Prevalence Testing--testing of all residents and staff on a regular basis at two facilities.
The challenge is that, try as we are each and every day via Dr. Aaron Miller our Emergency Services lead and his team, it is very difficult to obtain the National Guard teams that are doing this testing or other means of testing. Further, once we obtain testing, the medical care we need for these facilities makes alternate settings such as hotels off site from the senior serving institutions with enough medical care very, very difficult to do successfully. Dr. Varghese and his team has taken steps to send trainers out for how to use PPE and is working hard on this, so please consider that as we seek to work on this continuing concern.
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As far as cases, many of you will have seen the article in ARLNow about the high incidence of Latino individuals that have tested positive for the virus in Arlington. Click above to learn more and then go to the links. The incidence of COVID among our African-American residents is also higher than the percentage of Arlington residents as a whole who are black.
The article and the facts are concerning to the Board and County staff and are part of our reasoning for the testing site at Arlington Mill that I've mentioned. The Arlington Mill Community Center is close to several predominately Latino neighborhoods and we hope it will help us catch infections early to obtain health care and prevent infections within households and buildings. We also hope and plan to hold a full day of significantly more testing at the site next Tuesday. I am and will consider racial equity with respect to our African-American population as well as we seek to serve all of our community as well as possible.
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County Board Meetings: Key Actions
The County Board took action on Saturday on housing, investing $2.3 million to help renters in affordable housing units across the County. The action will enable affordable housing nonprofits with contracts with the County to delay payments to so that they can waive late fees and defer rent for residents with identified needs. This step, along with Arlington's courts decision to delay eviction proceedings from May 17th through June 7th are steps we are taking to help people stay in their homes.
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Yesterday, we accepted a $20.66 million grant award for COVID 19 funding through the Federal Cares Act. (See the press release in the button above.) The funding will be used for testing, PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) and funding to help those at risk of eviction, through emergency spending through Arlington Thrive as well as other nonprofits. We also provided $500K in funding to work with Arlington Public Schools to provide broadband for families in need of funding for such access.
We have already helped at least 739 families through Thrive under 50% of area median income ($42K for a single person, up to $60K for a family of four.) The $20 million will go both to expenditures we have made for those in need as well as costs over the coming weeks, months, and year to come.
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The Board also held a discussion about Commission meetings on Tuesday, which must be held virtually during the ongoing state of Emergency declared by the Governor and the County Board starting in March. The Board addressed a much-discussed concern with respect to development by removing a provision that would have allowed the Manager to move forward without Site Plan Review Commission meetings. This was known to those who followed this issue as Section 4d. We agreed that such meetings, and the opportunity for public input, should be done virtually, despite the significant time and resources involved.
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To watch the Board's Discussion on Commissions, click above and go to 41:00 minutes to watch the process. (The Board's emergency ordinance is discussed later in the evening, but this is the practical key information for you.)
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With respect to Commission meetings as a whole, due in part to the legal requirements that apply to even virtually convened meetings and in part to the extensive challenges in terms of staff capacity for online meetings, commission meetings will be limited to cases where there is a legal necessity for a meeting or an item coming forward that requires a commission meeting. More details on how to request such a meeting will be provided by County staff over the coming week.
In many instances town hall or email communications will and, in my view, should be our focus for the coming months. I offered an amendment that would have clarified that the term of this way of operating should end in September. I was unable to persuade colleagues that such an amendment was necessary, since the Board continues to have the authority to rescind this ordinance. I believe we will reevaluate this if and as needed.
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Other Action Related Items that May Impact You
Several other issues that may impact you directly came up this past week. First and foremost is summer camps, which we have decided to cancel. I know this may be frustrating to you--I am sorry, but we must continue to focus on what is in the health and safety interest of all our residents. Putting children together before we have evidence of a sustained decrease in cases is not safest.
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On a more positive note, limited yard waste pickups will resume. With respect to credit on bills for missed time, please read the button below and email me if you have questions.
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Finally, I'd like to give you a few links you may be able to use:
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Thanks again for reading, caring, and remembering hope.
Yours,
Matt
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