The Bradford County Commissioners have issued a Declaration of Emergency, effective immediately to allow for an immediate and flexible response to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). The declaration allows for the creation of an Advisory Council to assist the Commissioners, our Public Safety Director and our Emergency Management Coordinator to more effectively respond to the impacts of COVID-19 in our county.
This council will be able to meet as needed in response to COVID-19, without the need to formally advertise times and places of meetings. However, the Commissioners noted that every effort will be made to list that information on the county website.
The declaration also authorizes the temporary suspension of formal requirements, such as those pertaining to the performance of public work, entering into contracts, the incurring of obligations, the employment of temporary workers, the rental of equipment, the purchase of supplies and materials, appropriation and expenditure of public funds, should the need become necessary to deal with any potential impacts from this emergency.
Commissioners Daryl Miller, Doug Mclinko and Ed Bustin cite several reasons for the declaration, including the CDC’s Declaration of the COVID-19 as a “public health emergency of international concern,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ declaration that COVID-19 creates a public health emergency, and President Trump and Governer Wolf’s Emergency Declarations.
The county leaders added, “It is import that our citizens recognize that this Declaration of Emergency is not a cause for alarm or panic. This simply allows us to relax the standards under which we normally have to operate so that we can make rational decisions, in a timely fashion, as needed during this ever-changing climate.”