OLDS — The town's director of emergency management, Brian Powell, is warning town staff and residents not to get complacent, even though several pandemic restrictions have been lifted lately.
“Be very well aware that we’re not out of the woods,” Powell said during a March 8 presentation to town council. “It’s abundantly clear how incredibly volatile and infectious this virus is and how miserable it can be in posing issues with our life and lifestyle.
“And it’s going to be around for a bit longer and the general message is to be patient and hang in there. We can ramp up hospitalizations very, very quickly by not following the recommended practices: isolation and distances.
“And the big one that they’ve identified is this in-house family community transmissions that can happen again if we ease the restrictions personally and at home."
Meanwhile, Powell said, the main precautions – to wear face masks and practise social distancing – remain.
Powell said once the pandemic is declared to be over, how it was handled by the town and other government agencies will be a great source of learning.
“We’ve created quite a petrie dish that will be studied for quite some time. Not just us, but all of ICPs (incident command posts) and how the incident management system has worked, has not worked, over this time,” he said.
At its height, about 40 people served in the Olds ICP. However, Powell said ICP personnel weren’t the only ones dealing with the pandemic in one way or another for the town.
All kinds of town staff, from public works crews to Aquatic Centre and Sportsplex staff have also responded.
“It takes a village to get this done and without the help and the assistance of these people behind the scenes, the ICP would not have been able to function as well as it was provided to do so,” Powell said, urging councillors to pass on their kudos to town staff.
Powell said town staff are communicating frequently with residents regarding the pandemic and keeping abreast of new government programs that could help businesses cope with the fallout from the pandemic.
That includes a new enhanced business benefit program, expected to be rolled out in April.
Michael Merritt, the town's chief administrative officer, thanked Powell and his team for their efforts during the pandemic.
He noted it’s been a year now since various town facilities were shut down and/or staff worked from home, due to COVID restrictions.
Merritt said the restrictions created great stress for staff and residents. Closures of the Sportsplex and Aquatic Centre are two examples. Despite that, he said staff coped “pretty successfully.”
“I’m sure there have been a few complaints about it, but we always follow the provincial guidelines, as we continue to do perform those duties and keep those sports up and running,” Merritt said.
Councillor Heather Ryan agreed with that assessment.
“I mean, our staff has been amazing during this whole time and you know, the whole situation has been in such flux that we’ve had to respond very quickly sometimes and it’s been a miracle that we’ve been able to continue on and everybody has been working so hard and thank you very much to our emergency management team as well,” Ryan said.
