Updated City of Salisbury COVID-19 Operations Plan for Saturday, March 28, 2020

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
3/28/2020
Contact: Mayor’s Office
410-548-3100

The list below will be updated as circumstances warrant. Newly-added information will be underlined. Please continue to monitor City of Salisbury social media feeds and other credible sources for updates and important information in the coming days and weeks.

Salisbury – The City of Salisbury provides this COVID-19 update for Saturday, March 28, 2020:

 

  • Peninsula Regional Medical Center has reported its first confirmed COVID-19 death at the hospital.
  • As of 3:00 p.m., March 28, 2020, Maryland has 992 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 5 of which are in Wicomico County.
  • Peninsula Regional Medical Center reports a steady increase in patients with COVID-19 symptoms, with 2 currently in the Intensive Care Unit.
  • Earlier this week, the Maryland State Department of Education announced that public schools will remain closed until at least April 24.
  • The State has also mandated that daycare facilities are to close no later than 5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 27, and remain closed until further notice, excepting any facility which provides service for essential employees who have no other childcare options available to them. Day care that is provided by friends, family and neighbors is still allowed if there are fewer than five children. State approval will be required for any facility wishing to remain open as an “essential” provider.
  • The Wicomico Board of Education continues to operate student meal centers. For a complete list of the 20+ locations around the county, go to www.wcboe.org
  • In addition to the resources listed below, the City of Salisbury, in cooperation with the Wicomico Health Department, Wicomico County Government, and other allied agencies has created www.coronarecoverytaskforce.com – a repository of useful information and links to important news and developments.
  • Citizens in need of unemployment assistance are encouraged to visit https://bit.ly/SBYunemployment
  • Citizens are reminded that toilet paper is the only thing we should be flushing down our toilets. As a rule, if it says, “Flushable” on the package, IT’S NOT FLUSHABLE.
  • Curbside recycling in the City of Salisbury has been suspended until further notice.
  • Citizens are urged to visit www.kindsby.com/give and make a donation to provide a meal for our first responders and hospital workers. This initiative also helps our struggling restaurants, by ordering exclusively from locally-owned and operated establishments.

This initiative also helps our struggling restaurants, by ordering exclusively from locally-owned and operated establishments.

The City of Salisbury has taken steps in line with those taken at the State and Federal level, with the goal of minimizing human-to-human contact and, thus, transference of the virus. To that end, effective Monday, March 15, the City of Salisbury imposed a mandatory telework policy. Citizens may continue to interact and conduct business with the City of Salisbury through our website: www.salisbury.md, or by calling 833-SBY-CITY (833-729-2489). Bills can be paid by mail, and those who are able may utilize the bill-pay service available through the website. Please note that although water bills are still due per the date printed on the bill, the City WILL NOT conduct service shut-offs for late or unpaid bills until 30 days after the end of the State of Emergency.
The City of Salisbury’s Unified Command Center remains at a Level 2 Activation (Watch). This level of activation indicates that an event may occur and City department heads and critical staff are monitoring and reporting information regularly to the City Administrator and Mayor.

In addition to the Governor’s mandated closings, the following limitations are recommended for area businesses:

  • We encourage citizens to continue to support local businesses by ordering food through carry-out and delivery services. Services such as DoorDash, GrubHub and UberEats have suspended local franchise fees during this emergency.
  • We encourage citizens to visit grocery and general merchandise stores during non-peak hours.  Citizens who are not seniors are asked to please avoid the seniors-only hours being implemented by many grocers. 
  • In line with the recommendation of the CDC, we encourage all doctor’s and dentist’s offices to reduce or postpone all non-essential/emergent procedures.

 

Residents can anticipate the following effects to normal City operations:

PUBLIC SERVICES

  • ALL Municipal Parking (lots, garage and street parking) will be free of charge until further notice.  Permit parking will still be enforced.
  • The City of Salisbury will ONLY accept payments online and by mail.  We will suspend late fees through 30 days beyond the end of the State of Emergency.  Payment windows at the Government Office Building will be closed until further notice. As noted in previous releases, NO water shutoffs will occur during this time period. The City of Salisbury Finance Department should be completed remotely at 833-SBY-CITY, [email protected], https://salisbury.md/departments/finance/pay.
  • The City of Salisbury will ONLY accept permit applications online. This includes all permits issued by the Department of Infrastructure & Development, Department of Business Development, Finance Department and Department of Housing & Community Development. The City of Salisbury Department of Infrastructure & Development can be reached remotely at 833-SBY-CITY, [email protected], https://salisbury.md/departments/infrastructure-development.
  • All licenses that expire March 5th and after are extended until 30 days after the end of Maryland’s State of Emergency.
  • The City of Salisbury will continue Outreach and Case Management for our homeless neighbors. City-funded homeless services will remain active.
  • All public safety services (Police, Fire, EMS, etc.) remain unchanged.
  • City Council Meetings will proceed as planned, however citizens are urged to take advantage of our community’s public access television simulcast of the meeting rather than attending in-person. You may view the meeting live at www.pac14.org
  • All critical public services, including trash and recycling, water and sewer services remain unchanged. There is no need to stockpile bottled water.
  • Utilities will NOT conduct water shutoffs for unpaid bills for the duration of the State of Emergency. Water shutoff for unpaid water bills will resume no earlier than 30 days after the State of Emergency is lifted.
  • March’s free bulk pick-up will be postponed until a later date, to be determined.
  • All City of Salisbury Boards, Commissions, Advisory Committees and Task Force meetings are canceled. Task Forces may continue to meet remotely.
  • All City of Salisbury employee work travel out of state is hereby canceled during the period of the State of Emergency and all personal travel out of state is discouraged.

 

EVENTS

  • All youth and Community Center programming is suspended from Monday, March 16 through Friday, March 27, or until public schools reopen to students.
  • The Salisbury Marathon and #RunSBY Festival are cancelled. All registrations are deferred to the 2021 #RunSBY Festival. Questions should be directed to [email protected].
  • 3rdFriday Indoors (March 20, 2020) is on, unchanged, as there is no gathering associated with 3rd Friday Indoors.
  • The Average Joe’s 0.5k will be rescheduled to a date to be determined.
  • The Hops on the River event will be rescheduled to a date to be determined.
  • The Census 2020 Neighborhood Walk will be rescheduled to a date to be determined.
  • All events permitted by the City through Easter (April 12, 2020) are canceled. No City support services will be provided to these events and no leases of City property during that time period will be honored. Deposits will be returned, if requested, or held for a rescheduled date.

 

For those who have health insurance, your provider may offer remote clinical appointments. Citizens are urged to find out if this option is available as an alternative to visiting the doctor’s office in-person.

For public health information, please continue to monitor the Wicomico Health Department and Peninsula Regional Medical Center social media feeds and websites. For COVID-19 information, residents may call (410) 341-4600 during regular business hours or 211 after hours.

We thank you for your patience and understanding as we all face this unprecedented event together.

 

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