As a statewide shelter in place order replaces Gilmer County’s order, county officials adjust to life with some similar problems cropping up from last week.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp issued a statewide shelter in place order on April 2 which took place the evening of April 3 and which is scheduled extend through April 13 in response to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. The order supplanted all county and local orders. (There is a FAQ about the order on page 3A.)
Gilmer County Chairman Charlie Paris said it immediately threw some issues into confusion.
“The big question mark right now is cabin rentals,” he said.
In the county order, new reservations for cabin rentals were suspended. People who were in the middle of stays were allowed to complete their stay.
In the governor’s order some businesses were listed as closed, all others were said to be allowed to be open. Cabin rentals were not addressed.
“I’m not real happy about that,” Paris said.
Gilmer officials are seeking guidance from the state who is in charge of enforcing the new order.
The United States Department of Agriculture has announced the closing of trails in the area, but the state has not.
“We are getting crowds of people coming here to the state parks, which normally would be wonderful, but not right now,” Paris said.
He said another group of visitors moved barriers to River Park again last week and flaunted the local parks closure by the county.
Gilmer County Sheriff Stacy Nicholson agrees about the visitors.
“There is still an exorbitant amount of out of town traffic,” he said. ‘The governor’s order, not the local order, allows for that.”
At this point, there is nothing law enforcement can do about the visitors, Nicholson said. Just keeping people distanced as much as possible.
“We are much luckier at the moment than other places,” he said.
What concerns him is visitors from places with more cases of the virus.
Still he said, people should remain calm.
Some people are spreading conspiracy theories and others are calling his department about allowable activity such as construction work or exercise, he said.
“We’ve got to keep our sanity,” Nicholson said. “People need to put Facebook away for a while and figure out what else there is to life.”
As of Tuesday, April 7, at noon Georgia had 8,818 cases of Coronavirus with 329 deaths. Gilmer County was listed as having 3 cases, according to the Georgia Department of Health’s website.
County operations
Gilmer County is dividing workforce in some departments, such as road workers.
The idea is to keep two crews alternating, one works one week, the other works the next week.
Paris said it is cheaper to pay both crews for weeks off than possibly getting the whole department sick and having to shut down operations.
“We are just trying to keep people safe at this point,” he said.
Solid waste has seen some changes because of the workforce availability. Whitestone convenience center will be shut down for three or four weeks and Tower Road convenience center will not be open on Sundays.
River Park and the golf course are closed for now.
County departments are adjusting to working with the public by phone and email. One example, he said, is planning and zoning are issuing permits on the phone or by email.
“We are assuming this is very temporary and looking forward to this being over in hopefully three to four weeks,” Paris said.
Nicholson said for his part crime is down across the board, as are the call volume. Domestic violence calls are still coming in, but at a lower volume.