Carson City leaders provide updates, answer questions regarding COVID-19's affects on city

A virtual town hall meeting was held Wednesday evening where local leaders spoke about the COVID-19 pandemic, how it affects Carson City and what city departments, schools and Carson Tahoe Hospital are doing to mitigate the issues.

The virtual town hall meeting was moderated by Carson City Chamber of Commerce Director Ronni Hannaman.

Carson City Mayor Bob Crowell was the first to speak virtually, video conferencing from his home to answer questions.

Crowell stated that recovering from COVID-19 as a city was going to be a challenge, but that he was optimistic overall.

“I think it’s going to be very difficult (to recover from this hit to our economy), and I think a lot of questions can’t be answered until we know how long this pandemic will last,” said Crowell. “We need definitive data to know the best way to get our businesses back.”

However, Carson City residents have gone above and beyond to adapt to the governor’s directive, he said.

“Our folks (in Carson City) have been doing their level best to comply with the governor’s orders and I have no reason to doubt that won’t continue,” said Crowell.

Businesses in the community rest on a thin margin, Crowell said, and a couple weeks down can have real damage to many smaller businesses in town.

“We need to reach out and see what we can do to help them,” said Crowell. “I know there are people right now that are figuring out how we can open the city back up back to normal.”

It’s not going to be easy, he continued, and it’s not going to be like flipping a switch.

“We’re going to have to work at it hard,” Crowell said. “Things like this take a devastating toll. We’re going to have to work through that.”

Crowell said that the city’s reserves are sufficient, as he and the board have been squirreling away money for times such as these ever since the last recession, and currently the reserve stands at around $10 million, which will be able to keep the city afloat.

Hannaman asked if our economy could handle a shut down until June 10, as some experts are predicting.

“I hope we don’t have to find out,” said Crowell.

He said that phasing in businesses gradually should be looked at. While certain densely populated events should be avoided, the possibility of opening up smaller businesses should be looked at as time goes on.

Crowell also wanted to take time to give thanks to our local first responders and medical personnel who have continued to be on the front lines during this crisis.

***

The second local leader on the town hall was Carson City School District Superintendent Richard Stokes.

Currently, there are about 7,600 students at home during the shut down, according to Hannaman, and she asked how the district was managing this.

“The schools closing was quite shocking,” said Stokes. “But our governor said, our education is going to continue. Our teachers have been providing lessons to their students remotely.”

Some of the challenges the school district faces every day, said Stokes, is that not all of Carson City’s students have access to the internet. Students in grades 6-12 regularly take home the laptops the district provides, but Kindergarten through fifth grade students leave their devices at school.

Therefore the district opted for paper packets instead for those grade levels.

As far as monitoring student progress, Stokes said, because the school year was three quarters of the way through, teachers already have a good idea of how students are progressing.

The Department of Education is asking teachers to contact students weekly, whether through video chatting or simply a telephone call to keep up with student progress.

For older students, especially seniors, this is a very disappointing time for them. Students have had to lose out on prom, activities and sports.

“If I was a senior right now, I’d like being able to sleep in an extra hour or so,” said Hannaman.

However, Stokes disagreed.

“Our students miss their school life. They miss having involvement with their peers and teachers, and with activities associated with school. I’m sure it was novel at first, but they want to get back to school.”

Carson City’s senior capstone, the senior project, is a time-honored tradition throughout Carson High School, and this will still continue, said Stokes.

Work for senior projects began back in October, and students will still be required to finish their portfolios. But instead of a panel of senior project judges who usually come into Carson High to be presented to, students will instead virtually present their projects to English teachers at the high school.

Hannaman asked whether or not the shut down could lead to the possibility of electronic (or virtual) schooling in the future.

Stokes said that they’ve had some successes through this trial, and he believes they could do it on a longer period of time if required to do so.

“I don’t think anyone would desire that because there is the whole social part of school that’s more than just reading, writing and doing math equations. It’s the social aspect that makes the system so important.”

***

The next local leader was Carson City Health and Human Services Director Nicki Aaker.

As of Wednesday night, the number totals for the quad county region, which contains some 162,000 people, were 27 total cases; 14 in Carson City with 4 recovered, 9 cases in Douglas County with 4 recovered, 4 cases in Lyon County with 1 recovered, and 0 cases in Storey County.

When Hannaman asked Aaker how Carson City has “dodged the bullet,” Aaker said she did not feel like we have.

“I don’t feel like we’ve dodged the bullet,” said Aaker. “We saw an increase in cases yesterday. Individuals are not adhering to the social distancing directive.”

Aaker said that Health and Human Services is asking individuals in the community to, please, listen to the governor’s directive.

“As a community we need to recuse person to person contact,” said Aaker. “That will help with flattening the curve and reducing cases, hospitalizations and deaths related to COVID-19.”

Aaker said that testing is still being done based on CDC guidelines, and are testing those with priority symptoms.

The classic symptoms for COVID-19 include fever, cough, and shortness of breath.

“All of the healthcare facilities testing within our area are following these guidelines, and there continues to be a national shortage of collection swabs,” said Aaker.

There are many factors that determine how long it takes to process a test, said Aaker, but generally they are seeing returns on results in 1 to 3 days. For more rural communities where it takes longer for the tests to make it to the labs, it could take longer.

Aaker praised the Nevada State Public Health Lab in Reno, which has been “a great partner” and they have been working hard to get their labs working very quickly.

Aaker said what people need to do most importantly is to stay home.

“What people really need to understand is when you have the test done, you still need to stay at home,” said Aaker. “The reason you’re getting tested is that you are sick, and if you do need to go out, you need to be wearing a mask so you can protect others from the germs you have.”

Aaker said the Salvation Army is handling donations for the Quad County Emergency Operations Center, and that they are short on some items such as gowns and face shields.

Other PPE are getting used up very quickly, and they are trying to be proactive by collecting more before their stores run out.

The complete list of needed items will be posted on gethealthycarsoncity.org, Aaker said, and the Salvation Army will be happy to take their donations.

***

The next local leader to speak was Carson-Tahoe Regional Medical Center’s Alan Garrett.

Garrett said they are predicting for the peak to occur sometime during the middle of this month, and they have been working diligently to make sure they have the capacity needed to take care of our community.

“We’ve never faced a pandemic like this,” said Garrett.

On any given day there are 188 beds available for hospitalization, said Garrett. In response to the pandemic, they were able to fit in another hundred, and they are looking for another 80, which at that point they will be at capacity.

There are 25 ventilators on hand, he said, and they’ve come up with creative ways to deliver oxygen to all of the beds, including those set up in tents in the parking lot.

“There are 2,000 people in the Carson-Tahoe family, and every one of them is showing up every single day,” said Garrett. “This is what they signed up for and they are all rising to the challenge. I’m really proud of our staff.”

At this time, not a single person has been hospitalized due to COVID-19.

“I don’t think we’re going to dodge a bullet, but I think we’ve listened to the governor’s order and I think it is affecting the curve,” said Garrett.

Hannaman asked if the hospital is adequately supplied to keep staff safe.

“We’re keeping all our staff safe, but we are not adequately supplied,” said Garrett.

The hospital began conserving supplies months ago when news began to spread of COVID-19 in China and they noticed a disruption in the supply chain.

“If we can’t keep our staff safe, we can’t keep our community safe, so that’s our first goal,” said Garrett.

***

Carson City’s Emergency Operations Manager and Fire Chief, Sean Slamon, was the final local leader to speak during the town hall.

“One of the advantages of a small town is we all work together,” said Slamon. “We’ve joined forces with the quad counties and that speaks to the relationships we’ve forged well in advance of this pandemic.”

These relationships allow the Emergency Operations Center to establish priorities in taking care of our communities, and allow our first responders to share accurate and updated information with the community, said Slamon.

Slamon said Carson City and our sister counties have been preparing for this pandemic, among other disasters.

“We have an Emergency Operation’s plan and a hazardous mitigation plan and one of those deals with a pandemic,” said Slamon. “We’ve been utilizing it and it has been very helpful and very resourceful.”

Slamon said that if you had looked at the playbook a few months ago, you wouldn’t believe where we are today within the pandemic, but because they had those plans in place, the’ve been ready.

“We’re in those modes now,” said Slamon.

To learn more about the virtual town hall meeting, visit carsoncitychamber.com.