Maplewood Declares State Of Emergency Amid Coronavirus

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — Maplewood Township Mayor Frank McGehee said in a letter to residents late on Thursday night that the township was declaring a State of Emergency to prepare for the novel coronavirus. He said he would close some town buildings through March 31 and suggested residents avoid gatherings with people of various age groups "and events that would attract people who live outside of our community."

In the letter, McGehee said, "The Township of Maplewood is moving from a containment stage to a mitigation stage for the COVID-19 coronavirus. This means that we are working to reduce the number of people coming into our community for gatherings and minimize the number of people from going out to gatherings ... Declaring a state of emergency provides the necessary means to protect the health, safety and welfare within the Township of Maplewood for both residents and employees and address conditions which may be presented by the COVID-19 emergency."

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On Thursday, several school districts in New Jersey began announcing closures of two weeks and longer. The state has announced 29 confirmed cases of the virus.

In Maplewood, the school district announced it would close early on Friday to plan for the future. However, many districts have extended their original plans. Watch Maplewood Patch for updates.

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that include the common cold as well as much more serious diseases. The strain that emerged in China in late 2019, now called COVID-19, is related to others that have caused serious outbreaks in recent years, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the U.S. was on Jan. 21.

Here is Mayor McGehee's letter:

<blockquote>

The Township of Maplewood is moving from a containment stage to a mitigation stage for the COVID-19 coronavirus. This means that we are working to reduce the number of people coming into our community for gatherings and minimize the number of people from going out to gatherings.

The type of gatherings that we are recommending for residents to avoid are those with multiple age groups, groups that involve 50 or more participants, and events that would attract people who live outside of our community.

While we don’t have any predictive modeling data on the projected amount of new cases to come in the weeks ahead, we have decided to take all precautionary measures to protect our community.

As a result, we have declared that a COVID-19 emergency exists within the Township of Maplewood, resulting in a State of Emergency for the Township of Maplewood effective at 11:00 pm on Thursday, March 12, 2020. Declaring a state of emergency provides the necessary means to protect the health, safety and welfare within the Township of Maplewood for both residents and employees and address conditions which may be presented by the COVID-19 emergency.

As part of the township’s mitigation plan, we will be closing several township buildings starting on Friday, March 13 through March 31st.

This includes The Woodland, The Burgdorff, De hart Community Center, 106 Burnett Senior Building, and 1978 Springfield Ave Art Center.

All events that were scheduled to occur at these buildings have either been cancelled or postponed. If you have filed an event application for one of these buildings, please reach out to either the Township Clerk or our Community Services Department.

The departments are working to contact organizations impacted as well.

Please note that our libraries will remain open at this time but have cancelled all programming through April 5.

The Ideas Festival has been postponed until sometime in the future. The Library’s meeting rooms will not be available for public use, and the Quiet Rooms at Main Library will be limited to one person per session. In order to prevent large gatherings of people we ask that students leaving school during any early dismissal avoid our libraries as a location to congregate. Like the schools, we ask parents to plan childcare accordingly.

I want to thank the leadership of our Library, especially Sarah Lester, for their commitment to our community.

Additionally, the Township will continue to provide its jitney services and will be increasing deep cleanings on weekends along with standard cleanings throughout ridership weekdays. Also, All Township public buildings are being cleaned thoroughly in a daily basis and we have additional supplies on order.

Township public meetings will be available via the Township’s YouTube channel, channel 24 for Verizon customers, and channel 35 for Comcast customers. Public comments can be submitted to askthetc@twp.maplewood.nj.us during Township Committee meetings. The Township Committee will then hear and respond during the public comment portion of the meeting. In addition, the Township encourages using our online payment system. If you have any questions, please call 973-762-8120.

Finally, we are releasing our Township’s Operational Plan for COVID 19 to the public. Please see the attachment.

This is unfamiliar territory for our Township, but we are resilient and have experienced many extraordinary events in our past including Hurricane Sandy, Irene and 9/11. By working together, collaborating together, we will make it through this as well.

Thank you for continuing efforts to take precautionary measures when engaging in Public Spaces. We must work together to stay healthy and safe. Thank you.</blockquote>

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