Welcome to the City of Plantation Podcast. In this episode, Dr. J and I are joined by Mayor Lynn Stoner who updates us regarding the update to the Executive Order. We also speak with Police Chief Harrison and Parks and Recs Director Goodrich regarding the specifics of this update. This Podcast is aimed at keeping the residents of Plantation informed regarding how the City and its various Departments are responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Please subscribe to this podcast, as we will be producing new episodes on a regular basis.
Guests: Police Chief Harrison and Parks and Recs Director Goodrich
Hosts: Deputy Chief Joel Gordon / Division Chief Ezra Lubow
Produced by: Ezra Lubow
Music: Oakwood Station - Summer Breeze Memories
Cover Art: The City of Plantation
Welcome to the City of Plantation Podcast. In this episode, Dr. J and I are joined by Mayor Lynn Stoner who updates us regarding the update to the Executive Order. We also speak with Police Chief Harrison and Parks and Recs Director Goodrich regarding the specifics of this update. This Podcast is aimed at keeping the residents of Plantation informed regarding how the City and its various Departments are responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Please subscribe to this podcast, as we will be producing new episodes on a regular basis.
Guests: Police Chief Harrison and Parks and Recs Director Goodrich
Hosts: Deputy Chief Joel Gordon / Division Chief Ezra Lubow
Produced by: Ezra Lubow
Music: Oakwood Station - Summer Breeze Memories
Cover Art: The City of Plantation
Hello plantation. Welcome to the city of plantations podcast. I'm dr Jay formerly with plantation information radio. Thank you for tuning in. We hope the information provided within the episodes of this podcast helped keep you, your family and your friends safe. During this pandemic, we're joined by plantation mayor Lynn stoner, who has just, uh, approved some modifications to the original safer at home executive water. Uh, mayor stoner. Maybe you could just take a few minutes and review with us some of the changes that were made and why you made them.
Speaker 2:Um, the county's executive order number 20 dash zero eight was signed late yesterday afternoon. They've indicated, um, and have spoken with the city, uh, mayors for the last couple of weeks, um, and that regard about, uh, parks voting and Marine activities and um, cool and, um, had a meeting this morning with um, our first responders public work, uh, parks and rec and um, our CAO Jason Nunamaker to discuss how these County rules applied to the city. Since the cities are still able to have, um, tighter restrictions than the County, we're erring on the side of caution and we're watching the data very carefully and we'll make, uh, additional provisions when it's appropriate and we see the turn. So, uh, today we're still going to do a passive component of our parks. Golf courses are lit, um, limited to one person to each golf cart and the community pools. If you're in HOA and condo, that's really up to your management company. That is something that, uh, we are not going to become involved in. But as far as the city, uh, pools at central park, we will not be opening those. So, um, the, uh, masks are still required. That language has changed. Uh, previous orders have indicated may, um, as as the trigger word. Um, and now it's ciao. So we are still required to wear our, uh, our, uh, maps and respect, the social distancing. So that's sort of it in a nutshell.
Speaker 1:All right. So I think I would just want to run back and touch on those masks again. Um, you said before it was, it was you may or we, we'd really like you to wear a mask and now because we're opening things back up, it really is mandatory and I think need to stress that correct. That masks and covering up are mandatory. Yes,
Speaker 2:absolutely. Absolutely. So that'll go to anyone out, public essential workers, grocery stores. Uh, yeah, so it's, it's a different, um, enforcement of, of those rules. Um, you know, the city had basically been functioning in a gentle mode and trying to educate people about the requirements. Even though they're allowing things open a little bit, the enforcement has become a little more strict. The order does indication in unincorporated Broward areas. BSO may, um, enforce the rules and of course each municipality may also enforce these rules. So what else you got?
Speaker 1:Okay, so the, and I just want to roll back to something else you said, which was obviously there's been a lot of pressure out there. We've seen in the news, people really demanding that. Uh, everybody opened back up and you said, we're doing this cautiously. Um, and I think that's important for everyone to understand is that we are going to open, we are opening up and we are going to make modifications and move along. But it's still important that public health and public safety take the priority and that you're, you're looking at this carefully as we make these decisions.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And the words health and safety have been, um, an important phrase that I've used over and over and as well as within the city and, and here within the city with a thousand employees, we have not had one case of the virus. Um, and I think that says something as to how we've implemented, um, the care and the caution and the safety of everyone. So, um, and also we're going to be ordering testing kits. So as our employees come back to work with everybody, we all get to get tested and be sure that we're good so that we can provide that level of comfort to our employees.
Speaker 1:That's great. Mayor, we thank you very much for calling in and joining us here and giving us kind of an update on what's going on. I appreciate you taking the time.
Speaker 2:Always. Thank you so much for what you do.
Speaker 1:Thank you, mayor. We're now joined by our parks and recreation director, Phil Goodrich and our police chief Howard Harrison. We're going to talk about the, uh, the change that the mayor made in, uh, in reopening some of the city facilities. Uh, and we did have her on the phone just a few minutes ago and she discussed some of the, the rationale behind it and why, why we're moving that direction. So Phil, I'd like to start with you. Maybe you could give us a little bit of an overview on what exactly we're opening up, how we're doing it and what are some of the provisions that are going to be part of. Sure. Joel,
Speaker 3:um, we're going to be opening up most of our parks. There will be a few parks that will still remain close cause they may be having projects going on or they're just not of a nature that's set up for passive use. Um, daily we're going to open the parks from 8:00 AM to 7:30 PM. Uh, that's for a passive use of the park system. In addition to that, the no courts or group place, uh, areas will be open to the public. Therefore know no practices of teams, games and things of that nature, have groups of people out participating together, uh, will be, uh, not allowed at this time. Um, so therefore that means when you come out to the park, you want to bring, uh, something to drink. Uh, we will not have any restrooms available. We will not have the water fountains available, obviously for not transmitting any, any cross section of any of the public that uses the facilities. So be smart, bring your stuff out with you. Um, also come to the parks. You want to be, uh, cognizant of the, the guidelines which are out there, which is to cover up. Uh, so you should have face mask on. Uh, some of the rules will be that most areas we will want everybody walking in the same direction. If they're walking laps around central park Lake or some of the ball fields or maybe the track, everybody's to be walking in the same direction. We're not going to dictate the direction cause it's pretty much as it's always been. We will want that to be happening throughout. There are some trails that we may have that it is not conducive to being able to walk in the same direction cause you're going to have to get back out once you've gone into the trail area here. When you get to one end you have to come back the other way, don't you? Yeah. Otherwise it's a really long walk. So that's kind of it in a, in a nutshell. Um, very specific spots that, uh, I know are very, very popular with a lot of the public is our tennis courts are pickle ball courts, our basketball courts and our dog parks, they're not open at this time. There's just such an element of congregating of people together there. Uh, it's problematic and we want to try and flow into this in a nice safe manner and to be able to continue to open up more and more as time goes on. So that's the goal for what we have set right now.
Speaker 4:And you think the measurement for that is, uh, the more that we see that people are able to adhere to that social distancing and covering up and being responsible, that as we start progressing, we may be able to open up more things. I mean, is that kind of the, the tests that we're looking for out there?
Speaker 3:Of course. And that also runs in conjunction with the statistics as we get more and more information from the County and from the state. Um, but specifically our County and our city, uh, we want to make sure that we're falling into those guidelines and working with them cause we, we want to be back to normal. And as close as we can, as fast as we can get back to normal is to walk in very nice incremental steps to be safe.
Speaker 4:Right. And we need everybody to, to pitch in to make that happen. We need to do their part and play their role and in order to get this accomplished.
Speaker 5:Absolutely. Um, and then, you know, obviously we have police chief, uh, chief Harrison here with us today. And, uh, if we don't abide by the rules, he's going to take care of making sure that we do. So. I'm glad you mentioned that because you know, at first our, our intent here was to inform and educate. We're beyond that, right? And we've, and I tell you what, I, I applaud the residents of plantation, cause they've done a fantastic job and we really have a good record. I don't mean to cut you off, but we have a tremendous record of low incidence of infections compared to other cities and other municipalities around the area. Don't. Yeah. It's due in part because of everybody's sheltering in place wearing their mask and social distancing. Right. I mean I applaud the residents of plantation, they've been outstanding. But as you know, our campaign has always been we're in this together, right? And we are, we at, this is the most critical time we're starting to, to open up little by little, right. We don't need to regress. Right. We don't need to. Good start back where we were of all the times. Right now is the time that you need to adhere to the rules. Right? And as I said before, I mean an executive order, a violation of an executive order, is it a second degree misdemeanor? It's enforceable. We don't want to go that route. That's why, again, I emphasize the fact that it is imperative that at all times you have your mask with you. At worst with you, right? You should be wearing it. But couple of that was social distancing. So there may be a time you, you don't have to wear your mask, but at all times you should have it with you. Yes. And it's, and when you talk about the parts, there are going to be times where you're walkers and it's all same direction, but there's going to be joggers passing the walkers, right? So if they're not mast, here's that opportunity of spreading the germ, right, the virus. And it's really a matter of of just courtesy and respect for the other people around you. You, you're out there to enjoy the facilities that we have and you want everybody else to be able to do that too. So just showing them the courtesy of, of taking care of each other. Absolutely. And you know, the, we haven't had a whole lot of calls for um, violations of social distancing. Right. Again, are the residents here are doing a great job, but think about keeping our resource, are our law enforcement doing other things rather than responding to calls of social gathering, those more than 10 people, uh, someone that doesn't have a a mask on. There's been a few of those calls. Not a lot.
Speaker 4:And I, I was, and sorry to cut you off, but I was going to touch on that because in the law enforcement community as a whole, right? We always talk about, see something, say something, right. Don't be afraid to report a situation. But the flip side to that is like, have some patients with your fellow resident. Like, if
Speaker 5:you're out at the park and you're walking in someone's jogging and they go by you for a half a second, within six feet, don't call the police for that. Right, right. I mean, I agree. Okay. Absolutely. Resources are going to be diverted to those type of calls rather than things that we truly need to be focused on. Right, right. Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know, one of the things that keeps coming up in the discussion, um, we keep saying on Facebook, we see posts of the mayor should be doing this, the mayor should be doing that. And city administration is really doing everything they can within reason and following the science, uh, to try and make things better for everybody. But as you said before, we're all in this together. It really is the community's contribution that makes it work.
Speaker 5:Absolutely. Without the residents telling me what they're supposed to do, we fall behind. And, uh, right now the city of plantations fairing very well. Our fire department, police department, our city employees, they've been coming through this at this point, knock on wood unscathed. Right? So we're, we're all doing our share to make sure that we get through this in the best way we can. That's why, again, I can't emphasize the fact that you have to be aware of your surroundings. If you plan on doing something, then plan within mind the possibility of coming in contact with others, making sure that you have your mask with you at all times. It's not a bad idea to bring a hand sanitizer with you as well. Sure. Because if you touch anything in a commonplace, the first thing you're going to do when you get in your car or if you're walking, if you have to sneeze, you're going to cover up your hands to your face. Right. You touch something and that's a good point because Phil, we're not, parks and rec is not going to be providing any type of hand sanitizer hand cleaner, right?
Speaker 3:Not at this point. I meant it at point when you may open up our facilities and do something of that nature where we're going to be offering the public to come inside. Then at that point we're going to be looking at what possibilities of, can we get the product efficiently? Can we get enough of it to be able to sustain that? But that'll be dealt with at an additional time. However, for right now we won't have the restrooms open. So if you do come in contact with something, yes, it is best for you to have that with you as personal protection for yourself.
Speaker 5:Right. Mr Goodrich? A good, good point there. With the restrooms, uh, water fountains,
Speaker 3:they're going to be both shutoff and also covered perfect garden,
Speaker 5:right? You do you want to, and I'm sorry Joel, but D do you want to also, cause we didn't hit the golf.
Speaker 3:Uh, at this point the golf courses in the across the city are open, but there's a very limited and very restricted use. Um, there's a protocol in place for both registering. There's nobody that, there will be no walk-ups to any course. Um, you'll have to register ahead of time, so you need to call in ahead of time, reserve your tee time. There'll be very limited or interaction with any of the point of sales systems, individuals. We paired in one guy, one person per golf cart at this point, regardless of even if you reside in the same home, a husband and wife for instance, you're going to still be paired in, in separate carts at this point. And that's just for uniformity of it. It's going to also help, uh, chief Harrison with, I see two people playing behind my house and there's two people in the cart and there's only supposed to be one. So, uh, while I'm sure it will be disheartening in some cases, um, it's just the times that we're in and the measures that we're, we've been put under. Um, but we're going to do that accordingly as people are playing. There's usually a beverage cart that's running around on the course at this point. We're not gonna have that running. It'll be a single point of sale back at the clubhouse and you won't be entering into the building at all. You'll just order from the window and there'll be a call, not call in number that they'll be able to call in. Uh, somewhere out on the course if they want to order something. Uh, and then a, an extremely limited menu, uh, just to handheld sandwiches and things of that nature for people to, to have one.
Speaker 4:Well, people will have the ability for that. I mean, no hot food and summer freshmen's right? At the golf courses. Yes. Okay. Wonderful.
Speaker 1:All right. So overall, really we, with all the steps we're taking and all the precautions we're taking, we still want to make sure that our residents can get the most possible out of our parks, out of our facilities, our golf courses, and that they maintain health and safety throughout. So I think that's terrific. And gentlemen, I want to thank the both of you for being here, for spending the time with us to go over this. Um, I know we've all put in a lot of time and a lot of effort in planning these things. Uh, and, and I know particularly Phil, um, you know, you guys have undertaken a lot, we keep talking about the first responders, but parks and rec, most recently, not just reopening the parks, but managing the food distribution. That was going on in last Friday and going to be continuing as we go down the road.
Speaker 3:Yeah, of course. Um, we also have, um, every Friday we are going to be running a food distribution and in cooperation with feeding South Florida. But additionally we have some other groups within the city that have requested additional feeding, uh, her food distributions that are being done by them, but they are going to utilize our central park facility. So from time to time, if you're going to be going to central park, you're going to have to enter in through Clary and 91st Avenue, which is our very Northern Northeast corner of the park because central park drive, when, uh, those food distributions are going to be going on, that road will be closed down from Broward Boulevard declaring a, and it's just a method so that we can properly manage the traffic and have the least impact to the community and the surrounding roads.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that was an amazing, I mean, chief Harrison and director. Good. The work that both of your departments and divisions did to make that organized and work. That was amazing. We were out there for, for it to go off as and flawlessly. Yeah. David was
Speaker 1:just amazing. And, uh, Phil, if you want to just take a few minutes, I know we talked in the meeting
Speaker 5:this morning about the number of people that we serve, the number of vouchers, et cetera. You want to just touch on that just a little bit?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well I can't say exactly the number. I'm going to say between 950 and a thousand vehicles went through that, uh, that center on Friday and we anticipate at least that again this, this Friday. So, uh, w again, very, very pleased with, uh, all the staff, the cooperation and the coordination between police department and parks and recreation and the efficiency that we got it all done. And while I know there's people in the public that really want to come in and help us at this point, um, right now we have staff, uh, since we're not servicing the public in some other ways, we're just repurposing that staff and we're going to utilize them for this facility or for this food distribution for the time being. Um, if that changes in the future, we'll certainly get it out and through our social media post and, and on the website.
Speaker 4:But to, to add on that though, even though the city of plantation isn't looking for volunteers, the organization which I'll let you speak about, they're always looking for volunteers for other endeavors throughout the County. Right?
Speaker 3:Of course, there's, there's multiple agencies out there that are constantly doing something and clearly as the community is moving through this, the needs are definitely there. And if you are interested in volunteering, there's plenty of ways out there. Um, it will take some, you know, looking around to find out what's out there. Uh, if you want to get in touch with us at parks and recreation, we'll certainly try and guide you in the right direction and get you those contacts as we, as we get them available to us as well.
Speaker 4:Awesome. Gentlemen, anything else that we can, uh, let our residents know about?
Speaker 3:Well, the one thing I want to say is just, you know, w we miss all the public. We miss all of our parks and recreation people, uh, everywhere. And from the dogs, the dog owners and uh, tennis players, pickleball players, we all understand, uh, these are tough times and when we have a passion for doing something, which is, you know, whatever that might be, uh, tennis, golf, walking, exercising, playing, baseball, playing, you know, whatever the sport is, whatever the activity is, you know, we certainly understand. I personally understand that as well. So we just want to do our part to get everybody back to whatever our final normal's going to be. We want to do that as safely as we possibly can.
Speaker 5:Absolutely. Terrific. Let's keep the campaign going. Let, let's keep it, we're in this together. Yeah. You know, going strong again, let's, let's abide by the rules. The more, uh, you know, uh, of us abiding by the rules, the more things are going to start opening, right? Uh, and that's the key here of all times. Let's stay focused on, uh, you know, our distancing, our, uh, sanitation and our, and our mask. It's key. It is, it is pivotal to this virus. And again, I applaud the residents of plantation. They've been doing a great job at this. We just need to keep it going a little longer.
Speaker 4:I'd say the best analogy I heard is we can't allow ourselves to get into that mindset where you go in for an infection and the doctor prescribes you penicillin or an antibiotic and you feel terrible for the first five days you're taking it religiously, you start feeling better and what do you do? You stop taking your medication. The bacteria makes a rebound and there you are. So that's what we're trying to avoid and I think you hit the nail on the head. It's a, it's a multipronged approach. The face covering doesn't work without the social distancing. The social distancing isn't as effective without the face covering, but getting everybody outside and getting them to our beautiful parks, uh, and, and getting them some UV treatment, right, is not a bad thing. No.
Speaker 1:And we are starting to see, and I'll use the term, the curve flattening. We are hopefully starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel and starting to see this thing drawing possibly to a close. Yeah, absolutely. All right. Gentlemen, thank you so much once again for your time and your insight. We really, really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Stay safe. You've been listening to the city of planned patient podcasts here in plantation. We're working hard to bring you the latest, most accurate information available about the Corona virus pandemic. Remember, if you have specific questions, you can email them to ask cityHall@plantation.org don't forget to visit the Cobra 19 page on our website and register forever bridge for up to the minute changes regarding the outbreak. We want to thank you for tuning in and taking the time to listen to the experts about how to keep yourselves, your family and your business safe and healthy during the prices. And don't forget to wash your hands. Cover your cough and maintain a safe distance.