Lock Haven Prepared to Close City Facilities if COVID19 Cases Rise Too High
LOCK HAVEN – City council Monday night approved an amendment to its March “State of Emergency” Declaration to go into effect if the number of coronavirus cases in the city’s zipcode gets too high. The change would call for closing down public access to City Hall and other city facilities, including playgrounds and ball fields.
City Manager Greg Wilson reviewed the recent trend of COVID-19 cases in the 17745 postal zipcode. He said the case numbers are “tipping back up” and if they run between 50 and 100 cases per 100,000 for five days in a row, previous public facility closures would be put back in place. He said the shutdown could also affect some level of the city’s summer concert series. He emphasized the paring back would be for City buildings and parks, not private businesses.
City council spent some time discussing a city administration call to suspend operations for one week at the Clinton Softball Field on Myrtle Street. Wilson said the suspension was the recommendation of city staff because league coaches were not wearing masks, as required by the guidelines to which the league said it would adhere. Council members decided instead for the city to monitor the field to document that the mask rule was being violated, rather than through second-hand reports. Council voted 6-0 that if the coaches are not complying with the guideline, there would be an immediate suspension of play. Council member Richard Morris noted the rules are for the safety of the participants.
Council talked briefly about a couple complaints the city had received about the Black Lives Matter protests and some level of disruption they were causing for people eating downtown as part of the city’s pedestrian mall on Saturday nights. Council member Barbara Masorti said she had been dining outside last Saturday when the BLM group moved up Main Street. She said was some profanity involving diners and demonstrators, but said it was not overly disruptive.
Masorti noted the group has a constitutional right to peacefully protest. And at the conclusion of the meeting two council members thanked Black Lives Matter for its most recent downtown Lock Haven clean-up conducted on Sunday.
City manager Wilson noted that as part of the pedestrian mall, starting Saturday, July 25, the city will operate a farmers’ market between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. The location will be along Main Street adjacent to the temporary dining area in the municipal parking lot between Grove and Vesper Streets.
