As this time (3/16/20 3pm), there are no Covid-19 cases reported here in the Tri-State. In fact the closest confirmed cases are 2 women in St. Clair County near St. Louis who reportedly travelled internationally and a potential case in Owensboro, KY. With no cases currently known in our immediate area, leaders in Carmi and White County largely believe the concern, locally at least, is overblown at this point. Harrisburg Mayor John McPeek stated he was declaring a national disaster for his community saying the governor was “totally wrong” in forcing the closure of bars and restaurants. I asked Carmi Mayor Jeff Pollard how he felt about it.
“You know I have mixed emotions about it. First of all, I have to agree with him on the aspect that we’re putting all of our local restaurants and people with jobs and people behind right off the bat. That’s what we were just discussing up in my office. If he was gonna declare something like this, keep it with Chicago and Cook County…keep it within some guidelines.”
“I feel like that if you’re gonna deal with the situation, ya know, focus on the area that it’s in, instead of like making the whole suffer for it basically.”
Holly Healy, with City Administration was able to provide details after our meeting on economic assistance that is expected to be available from the state. You can find that here à https://www.wrul.com/local-news/covid-19-economic-assistance-for-illinois-families-information/. Healy also says she was impressed with local business owners and their ability to adapt and encourage shopping locally amongst the community. She echoed their calls, saying,
“Even though our movements are somewhat limited right now, if you can shop Carmi first, shop White County first, now’s the time to certainly be remembering our local business owners as well.”
Sheriff Doug Maier took a hard line saying that his office would do what is necessary, but he made no bones about what he thought.
“I certainly disagree with the Governor’s actions; I do think it’s an overreach and I do think it’s gonna have a long term effect, but as Sheriff I can’t necessarily go by my personal opinions. As Sheriff, I’m gonna do everything I can to try to accommodate what is required of us to do. I’ve taken several steps with both the courthouse and the jail, as well as my deputies. Unfortunately, some of my officers don’t have some of the options that were given the general public, but there are some things we can do to minimize our exposure.”
Those steps Maier mentioned include not sending an officer to every single call for service. For non emergency calls,
Maier says an officer will contact the citizen and determine if the call can be handled over the phone. Additionally, there will be no in person visits at the jail. All visits will have to be from a remote location. Furthermore, all inmates brought into the jail will be asked a series of questions to help determine the risk of exposure to Covid-19. Lastly, Maier says only defendants and plaintiffs will be allowed in the courtroom at the White County courthouse. No family members or friends will be allowed to accompany defendants in the courtroom. The rule does not apply to attorneys and court personnel, obviously.
Hand in hand with that, the City of Carmi as of this afternoon has closed the Light and Water office to public entry until at least March 30th due to Covid-19 concerns. The Carmi Police lobby is also closed to the public until further notice.
Chief Carter added with regards to the situation…
“This chaos…that’s exactly what it is, it’s causing chaos where there shouldn’t be any chaos. If people would just calmly prepare themselves with just a little extra food for a couple weeks…but this buying out shelves of food and toilet paper and stuff is just unreal and it’s not necessary.”
While there’s already been some panic, Pollard thinks the actions will actually potentially get worse.
“I think the scariest part of it is, you know we’ve watched the chaos over the toilet paper and everything else and now after yesterday’s statement with restaurants closing down, I think you’re going to see more chaos from people trying to run to Wal Mart and all the grocery stores to try and get all the food they can and stock up because they’re just gonna be freaking out because they don’t think they can go anywhere or do anything.”
