As life in Iowa and the nation grinds to a pandemic halt, the Burlington City Council followed President Donald Trump’s lead Monday night by prohibiting gatherings of more than 50 people on city property.
The ban due to the coronavirus will stretch until at least into the middle of next month. Also, meetings with groups of 10 people or more in a single room on the city-owned property have been prohibited for the next two weeks.
Mayor Jon Billups said city offices will stay open for the public, and stressed the bans are only for city-owned properties.
But if you can, stay home, Billups said.
“We are trying to encourage electronic or telephone interaction with the city for city business. We remain open,” Billups told The Burlington Beacon after the meeting.
Trump issued a recommendation Monday afternoon against 10-person or more gatherings in response to the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. and throughout the world. The president’s press conference aired shortly before Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds held her own press conference explaining her recommendation to close the state’s schools for the next month.
“We are in the middle of a public health crisis,” Burlington City Manager Jim Ferneau said during Monday night’s council meeting.
Ferneau, who has a family of 11, wryly wondered if he could go back home without violating the president’s recommendation. His unexpected joke elicited surprised laughter from the council, breaking the tension of an increasingly somber meeting.
It was the last council meeting the public will be able to attend for some time. Weekly council meetings are already broadcast online and via local public access, and that will be the only way to watch starting next week. Council members can also participate in meetings remotely.
Trump called for the social distancing of up to six feet, and Ferneau was serious about that recommendation, as well.
“As you can see, we’re not following that here,” Ferneau said from the crowded council meeting table. “That’s why we’re doing this (passing the resolution).”
The city passed three emergency resolutions Monday night. One limits public gatherings (on city property) for the next 14 days, though that could be extended.
The second resolution ensured council meetings and other city meetings would be conducted remotely.
The final resolution, an emergency declaration, gave Billups the power to take swift emergency action as relates to public closures and transit. Billups said the situation could change daily, and he will be following state and national guidelines.
Trump said Monday afternoon that Americans should prepare to stay hunkered down into July or August. There is no timeline on when the rising pandemic will subside.
Burlington Public Library Director Rhonda Frevert said that library programs in and out of the library have been canceled, though the library is still open to the public for check-out. A slew of activities in Burlington and the surrounding area have been canceled already, with more to follow.
Though Illinois has closed down the dine-in portions of restaurants and bars by mandate, Gov. Reynolds has only gone as far as to recommend school closures for the next four weeks. Nearly every school in the state followed suit.
Several fast-food restaurants in Burlington are doing drive-thru only, including Arby’s, McDonald’s and Taco Bell. The list continued to grow Monday night.
The Burlington School District currently is on spring break and has not officially canceled classes beyond that break. The district is expected to make a decision by Thursday, however.
A long list of European nations that have enacted severe country-wide lockdowns, including France, Spain, Denmark, Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland. Italy, the worst affected European country, has recorded more than 1,800 coronavirus-related deaths so far and expects some 90,000 infections by the end of April, according to NBC news.
The U.S. death toll climbed to at least 81, with 25 of those deaths associated with the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington.