The below remarks are available to watch here and the full Virtual Town Hall is available to watch here.
By Steuart Pittman
Last night I was notified that an Anne Arundel County man whose name I do not know lost his battle with COVID-19. We want his family to know that we are sorry for their loss. We are here for them, and we will pursue this struggle in his memory.
COVID-19 is infecting Americans at a faster rate than it has grown in any other country.
We don’t know how many Marylanders are infected. The tests results come in 4-7 days after the swabs are taken, and very few people have been tested.
In Anne Arundel County the infection rate is doubling every two to three days. Our hospitals are doing the responsible thing and canceling elective surgeries to make room for a patient surge.
Efforts to add hospital bed capacity are underway, but progress is slow. We were asked yesterday by the state to identify hotels and other large spaces where convalescent care could take place. That work is underway.
Without widespread testing and without either a vaccine or a cure, we are left with one strategy to slow the spread of this virus.
Every single one of us must act as though we are a carrier of COVID-19. Because even without symptoms, we could be.
Social distancing and isolation are not how most of us want to spend our spring and even part of our summer. And nobody is happy about the economic impact of this battle. But this is where we find ourselves, and this is the challenge we must meet.
However, THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT! Life continues, and we can adapt. We can even find joy, and appreciate the good things around us.
Speaking of good things, I am very lucky to have with me today (not too close, but still with me) some very, very good people.
Dr. Nilesh Kalyanaraman is the leader that our heroic health professionals need in a time like this. He is ALWAYS on the job. ALWAYS tells the truth. And he is ALWAYS on our side.
Carnitra White leads our social workers. She understands the struggles of the people they serve. And she understands the stress that they are under as they work to protect our most vulnerable residents, the ones who don’t have the resources that it takes to get by at a time like this.
Rosa Cruz is here representing the team at our Economic Development Corporation. She is in regular contact with our small business people, many of whom are unable to pay their employees, unable to pay on their loans, and unable to pay their rent because revenues don’t exist for them right now.
And my friend Bishop Antonio Palmer of Kingdom Celebration Center in Odenton, not far from where the stores at Arundel Mills Mall and Live! Casino employed thousands of people, until just last week. Like many churches in our county Bishop Palmer and his parishioners are doing God’s work through food distribution and services, for all.
I want to share some GOOD news. Some good news from what most of us would say is an unlikely place. Some good news from the United States Congress in Washington, DC!
We heard last week at this event from our very own Congressman Anthony Brown. Earlier this week I spoke by phone with both Congressman John Sarbanes and Dutch Ruppersberger.
But it was Thursday night that I heard from both our Maryland Senators, Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin, after they took what was an old-fashioned economic stimulus bill and turned it into a carefully targeted aid package that actually puts money where it’s needed - to help our county residents who are losing their jobs and their income.
The Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) is 800 pages and 2.2 Trillion Dollars in programs, so I won’t bore you with all the details. But this bill will have a real impact on our residents, on our hospitals, and on county government’s ability to act locally where we need to act.
Consider this.
Unemployment insurance will be available to hourly and self-employed workers who were ineligible before, and on top of the scarce money they get to cover their costs under today’s limits, everyone who files will get an additional $600 per week. To apply for unemployment insurance go to Maryland Department of Labor’s web site. Traffic volume is high, so be persistent.
But there’s more. Even if you don’t lose your job, the federal treasury wants you to spend money, so they’ll be depositing $1,200 into your account or sending you a check for that amount, unless your adjusted income is over $75,000, in which case the number declines as your income rises. You also get $500 for each child.
There’s a lot of money for large and small businesses in the bill as well, but in this case that can work. There is a rule that they can’t get the money if they lay off more than 10% of their workers, and much of the money is a taxpayer investment that will have a return when those businesses bounce back.
Anne Arundel County is projected to receive as much as $99 million to offset our emergency coronavirus spending, and there is direct assistance to hospitals, homeless assistance, and student loan deferment.
To some people, all this federal money might sound extravagant. I worry about the national debt as well. But there is a sound economic case to be made that this investment will pay off, not only for American families, but also for the federal treasury. We are saving our people and we are saving our economy.
One of our challenges as a local government is to effectively take advantage of what the federal government is offering. We have the smartest, hardest working people in local government anywhere, and they are spending this weekend making plans to pursue every dollar of these funds that we can get for the residents of our county.
Before I turn it over to the other speakers, I want to skip through a few highlights of what we’ve been doing this week.
While county buildings are closed to the public and all staff who can work from home ARE working from home, county government continues to serve our residents.
Police
Fire and EMT
Public Works
Budget and Finance
Law
Health
Social Services
Mental Health Agency and Crisis Response
Planning
Inspections and Permits
Central Services and Purchasing
Housing Authority
I could continue through every agency, but my point is that the work continues, and the people in these agencies are creatively adapting what they do to serve our residents in ways they never expected just a few very long weeks ago.
Here are a few examples. You might want to grab a notepad to write down some phone numbers and web sites.
Child Care
Since our first town hall I promised free child care for the children of our essential employees and health care workers. We planned to offer the service in school rooms where child care is provided by our Rec and Parks team when school is open. We were delayed when the state of Maryland made a decision that counties could not do child care in our schools.
This week the state closed all private child care centers, but told them that some would be approved to re-open next week to exclusively serve children of businesses and agencies that have not been shut down - essential businesses and stores. A list should be available at marylandfamilynetwork.org, or by calling 877-261-7856. I know that they are building that list as we speak.
Our team at Rec and Parks developed an alternative plan so that we could get started quickly and meet what we expect to be a high demand.
Yesterday morning the state approved our plan to open two separate rooms for eight kids each at our first three sites: South County Rec Center, Arundel Swim Center on Riva Road in Annapolis, and North County Aquatic Center in Glen Burnie. We put the application information on line mid-day yesterday, and by the end of the day those 48 slots were filled.
One single mother who works in a hospital told our staff through her tears just how grateful she was to have a safe place for her daughter, so that she could get back to the job she was trained to do, at a time when she is most needed.
Rec and Parks is working on a plan to open Senior Centers for child care this week, and I will continue pressing the state to allow our team to use our child care rooms at schools.
Parents can contact Rec and Parks Child Care Division through their website or by calling 410-222-7856.
Parents will pay nothing for this child care. Costs will be reimbursed to providers by the state.
Call Center
Our Call Center here at the Emergency Operations Center has received 1,800 calls and is working hard to get good information to every caller. The number is 410-222-0600 and I urge you to use it. You can also email them at EOC@aacounty.org.
Winter Relief Extension
Local churches alternate sites in our county to provide shelter in the winter to people who are homeless. That program would have ended this week, except for the generosity of Bay Area Christian Church. They have stepped up to extend it, and an email was sent yesterday to all county staff asking for help staffing the site. Thank you.
Note that we have a ban on evictions, foreclosures, and utility shut-offs in effect. We are in the process of expanding our mortgage counseling program at Arundel Community Development Services.
Map of Food Sites
You can now access an interactive map of all free food distribution sites in the county, including the school meals program, senior nutrition program, and food pantries.
You can also access a listing of special shopping times for seniors at grocery stores.
The Senior Nutrition program has added a new service whereby a week’s worth of easily prepared meals are available every Tuesday from 11 am - 1pm at all of our Senior Centers
Aging and Disabilities and volunteers from other county agencies continues to call 10,000 of our seniors each week, and some daily for a check-in. Thank you to the crews doing that work.
Our Health and Social Service teams continue to visit all assisted living homes and homeless shelters and other sites where vulnerable populations are housed in close quarters to do testing for symptomatic residents, provide guidance on social distancing, and in some cases provide alternative housing at local hotels.
Our Anne Arundel County Public Schools team is continuing to innovate. My two 4th grade boys have been online each day doing the lessons that are offered, as quickly as they can get through them. Superintendent Arlotto announced yesterday that there will soon be programming that is more interactive and more comprehensive.
My message to kids is that this is your opportunity to take charge of your education. Do the curriculum that is offered online, but also explore what YOU are interested. Take some time to practice your writing skills.
In fact, I could use some straight talk and wisdom from kids right now, so please shoot me an email with your concerns and your ideas at countyexecutive@aacounty.org.
As layoffs spiked and unemployment claims increased 30-fold in our county last week, our team at Workforce Development is stepping up to help people find work. Big box stores and some industries are actually hiring. Go to aawdc.org to get their virtual help finding work at an essential business that is working to meet the needs of our residents.
I know that many of you are eager to help. You can offer your time through EOC@aacounty.org or 410-222-0600.
You can also donate supplies. A list of needed items is now at aacounty.org/coronavirus. Our drive through Donations Management Facility will be fully operational on Tuesday morning. Please call and let us know you are coming at 410-222-0600, but be aware that the site is at 1370 Blair Drive in Odenton and is open for donations only from 10-2 M-F.
You can donate the same supplies to Anne Arundel Food Bank at 120 Marbury Drive at the old Crownsville Hospital Center site. They are open from 9-noon and 1-3 M-F.
And finally, if you have financial resources to contribute, please consider the Coronavirus response fund at Community Foundation of AA Co. You can donate online at CFAAC.org.
Last week, I encouraged you to breathe. To get outdoors and enjoy the spring. To read a good book, connect with family, and take care of yourself.
I hope you’ve done some of that, and I hope you’re getting good at it. This will go on for a while. It will get worse. People you know will get sick, and some may die.
When you look back on this time, I want you to have no regrets. I want you to believe that you did what you could. You protected people, and you helped someone. You acted in a way that saved lives.
If enough of us emerge this summer or fall having met that challenge, I can guarantee you that we’ll find ourselves in a better county, a better country, and a better world.