TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz made several announcements Thursday regarding the city's response to coronavirus. Here's what was said about summer activities, the municipal budget and enforcement of state guidelines:
Future of Summer Activities
Kapszukiewicz said that city pools and fireworks will be unable to proceed this summer.
Even as Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine begins to reopen the state, Kapszukiewicz said this is moving very slowly and has remained adamant that large gatherings will be the last thing to be approved.
He said that his administration rattled their brains to come up with anyway things like fireworks could proceed, even discussing the possibility of having residents watch from cars. However, ultimately they determined it wasn't possible nor practical.
In terms of pools, he said that the city's six pools and splash pads would not be able to open. This is not budgetary, Kapszukiewicz said, it is a health risk. Pemberville leaders announced the same fate for their pools on Wednesday.
The problem with the virus, he said, isn't related to what happens in the pool. The worry is when you get out of the pool, playing and interacting, and people entering public changing rooms; that's what worries health experts.
Kapszukiewicz said that traditionally, city pools provide free lunches to kids when they are open. Though the pools won't be open, he said, the city would continue to provide meals to children as they would typically do. They are considering different for locations where they can distribute these meals in which they can remain socially distant.
Kapszukiewicz reminded residents that both the ProMedica Concert Series and the Centennial Terrace Concert Series were canceled for the year in the name of safety amid the pandemic.
Toledo City Budget
Kapszukiewicz said the city about a week away from reevaluating city employees on temporary emergency leave (TEL). An evaluation is set to be made every 30 days.
Ohio is beginning the process of distributing $1.2 billion in relief funds to local municipalities.
Senate Bill 310 passed the Senate is on the way to the House, if it were to pass, it would get a city like Toledo just over $8 million. It would then be permissible for the city to use those funds to pay salaries of police and fire crews. However, the mayor said that $8 million would not be the last or only funding the city would receive through changes in the CARES Act, called "CARES 3.0." The state would still have hundreds of millions of dollars available to provide for relief. Kapszukiewicz said that Toledo could see $22 million by the time it is all distributed.
Congress will be back in full session by the end of this month. Kapszukiewicz said it is likely there will be a "CARES Act 4.0" on the way.
The mayor said moving forward there will be a mixture of cuts and government funding to help dig Toledo out of a financial hole.
Kapszukiewicz said his administration is continuing to work with city council to pass a new city budget. The initial budget was passed in March, just before the economy took a blow. The council will begin to look toward creating a new budget in June.
Despite cuts, Kapszukiewicz announced that there will be a 25-officer police class to begin in October.
Kapszukiewicz he, along with council members will be discussing whether it makes more financial sense to postpone certain projects already in the works, to cancel them completely or if it would cost more money for some to not move forward.
One of those projects up for discussion is the installation of LED lights. He said he believes it should move forward as it is in the interest of public safety. However, Kapszukiewicz will be working with city council to figure out what is best for the city moving forward.
Local Enforcement of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine's Orders
Kapszukiewicz said he met with local health officials to discuss how they will locally enforce the governor's orders as we move forward with slowly reopening the state.
He reminded residents that while retail shops are able to reopen on May 12, there are a number of specific guidelines businesses must follow to keep employees and customers safe. Some of those guidelines include keeping customers six feet a part, employees must wear masks and the total capacity must be at 50% or less of the fire code among others.
Even before we got to the point of reopening, Kapszukiewicz said, the city has had to enforce previous parts of the governor's stay-at-home order. He said there were about 100 businesses the city closed for violating orders.
The city anticipates there will be even more scrutiny and attempts to get around the governor's order. So far, there has been one officer assigned to enforcement, but more are anticipated to join.
Residents may call 419-213-4161, press option 4 and leave a message to report a business or employer violating the state's guidelines. These reports will be relayed to a "retail strike team" to investigate. The team will also be making unannounced, random checks of establishments.
In any case where the strike team arrives to a business in which they see evidence the governor's orders are being violated, that business will be shut down immediately; no warning letter, no advance notice.
Kapszukiewicz said there has been much debate on the best ways to reopen. He said that while there is room for that debate, he claimed that what goes unnoticed is that roughly 62% of people are still scared. He said that he doesn't thing there is anything wrong with having things begin to reopen, but it needs to move forward with "strings attached."
Kapszukiewicz said that more people have died in Lucas County than the other 87 counties in the state.
"Nobody wants to be where we are; nobody. Nobody caused it, there's no decision anyone made that put us in this crisis and that's not just happening to Toledo, that's happening to every community in this country," he said. "So, I want the economy to open back up. I want be able to go to restaurants. I want there to be fireworks this year. I want there to be Mud Hens games; that's what I want. However, I know that some of that stuff we're just not going to be able to do this year."
State and Local COVID-19 Information
For more information on COVID-19, visit www.LucasCountyHealth.com.
The Lucas County Community COVID-19 call line numbers are 419-251-4000 (English only) and 419-291-5355 (multilingual).
The public is asked to refrain from calling 911 unless it is a true emergency. Call 419-213-4161, press 4, and leave a message to report COVID-19 related matters.
The Ohio Department of Health COVID-19 website is www.Coronavirus.Ohio.Gov and the Ohio Department of Health hotline is 1-833-4-ASK-ODH (1-833-427-5634).