Centre County joins ‘Centre Strong’ initiative
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BELLEFONTE -- Masking continues to be a hot topic in Centre County.
At Tuesday's Centre County commissioners meeting, chair Michael Pipe announced that the board has agreed to be a part of the Centre Strong initiative.
"It's a pledge for local businesses and other organizations to take that essentially encourages face coverings, sanitizing, hand hygiene and social distancing in an effort to fight back against the COVID-19 pandemic," Pipe said. "We saw it released (Monday) … since then, many businesses have taken the pledge. With all the work we've been doing since March in these regards, I think it would be fitting if we would also take the pledge."
The Centre Strong initiative was introduced Monday, Pipe said, by the Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County, the Bellefonte Intervalley Chamber of Commerce, the Moshannon Valley Economic Development Partnership, the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau and the State College Downtown Improvement District.
"We thank the local business community for what they're doing," Pipe said.
There is no cost to join the initiative.
"It sounds like a good idea to me," said commissioner Mark Higgins.
Higgins said that he recently explored data for the state of Pennsylvania.
"It turns out that Centre County is the safest county in the state," he said. "I think, in part, because a lot of the students aren't here. But based on the number of deaths we've had in the county divided into the population of the county, we are about three standard deviations lower in terms of our mortality rate than other parts of the state."
Centre County, which added two cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, remains relatively low in terms of overall numbers with 231 confirmed cases and 22 probable.
"Centre County is very safe at the moment -- let's keep it that way," Higgins said matter-of-factly.
Here's what the Centre Strong pledge entails for the business owner:
-- Employees wearing masks (covering nose and mouth).
-- Employees with clean hands.
-- Surfaces, equipment and other elements of the business environment regularly cleaned and disinfected.
-- Social distancing measures are in place.
And this is what they expect from customers:
-- Wear a mask (covering nose and mouth), if medically able.
-- Enter with clean hands.
-- Adhere to social distancing measures.
-- Use respiratory etiquette, including covering coughs and sneezes.
The pledge also says that businesses:
-- Encourage workers to stay home if sick and send employees home.
-- Assess the health of workers upon arrival and during work, including fever, cough and shortness of breath.
-- Encourage employees to frequently wash their hands with soap and warm water.
-- Encourage employees to take appropriate health safety measures as they leave the workplace for the day and return to their homes.
Because Centre County is not a "home rule" county and since it does not have a county health department, it cannot enforce the mask-wearing measures.
"We're unable to, as a county government, do anything like you're seeing in other counties in terms of enforcement, in terms of fines, fees, we're unable to do any of that," Pipe said.
Over the weekend, hundreds of students descended on Centre County for what would have been Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, a big weekend when students return to Penn State.
"I think there is a level of concern, when over the weekend, we saw many students coming in for Arts Fest. There wasn't social distancing occurring, masking was hit and miss. I think (State College Borough) is hearing a lot from their residents about what can be done," Pipe said.
Pipe said that Centre County businesses and organizations can visit www.centrestrong.org to take the pledge.
In other business Tuesday, the commissioners:
-- Agreed to a contract renewal with Dr. Kassandra Botti to provide medical oversight for the purchase, training, storage and administration of naloxone. The contract total is $500 for the period of Aug. 1, 2020 through July 31, 2021. The item was moved to next week's consent agenda.
-- Approved the 2018 PHARE rental assistance close out report in the amount of $22,000 for the period of Aug. 1, 2019 through Jan. 31, 2021. The report was also added to next week's consent agenda.
-- Issued proclamation No. 16 of 2020, which proclaims the month of July as Parks and Recreation Professionals Day.