On May 12, Preston Allen, the Chair of the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors announced the creation of a Saratoga County Reopening Advisory Committee chaired by Waterford Supervisor Jack Lawler.
In addition to Supervisor Lawler, the advisory group includes: Cathi Duncan, Director of Saratoga County Public Health Services; Saratoga County Sheriff Michael Zurlo; Town Supervisors Ed Kinowski, of Stillwater; Eric Connolly, of the Town of Ballston; Tom Richardson, of Mechanicville; Kevin Tollisen, of Halfmoon; Dan Pemrick, of Greenfield; and City of Saratoga Springs Supervisor Matt Veitch; as well as Charles Wait, of The Adirondack Trust Company; Gary Dake, of Stewart’s Shops; and myself, Todd Shimkus, of the Saratoga County Chamber.
This Advisory Group was tasked with working with Saratoga County Administrator, Spencer Hellwig, who was himself named to the region’s control group, to help navigate the complicated process of reopening Saratoga County’s economy.
The Advisory Group has met once a week for the last 9 weeks. Each meeting includes a report on the work of the regional control group as it has sought to clarify the details for local businesses and officials as we’ve progressed to our phase 4 reopening. The advisory board also receives updates on how Saratoga County is doing in terms of the key health metrics by which our communities are being judged in order to reopen our economy. We also have a weekly update from Sheriff Zurlo relative to compliance issues arising from calls to New York State’s various hotlines to report potential issues.
The first action taken by the Advisory Board was to set up a new page on Saratoga County’s website at www.reopeningsaratogacounty.com. This website is a one-stop shop for local employers to get the latest information about the phased reopening of our economy. In less than 6 weeks, the site has registered more than 35,000 views. Every day, the site is updated as daily directives from the Governor’s office are announced.
Saratoga County also has an online COVID 19 Dashboard. This is updated every day and includes the latest local information about: confirmed cases; deaths; active cases; recovered cases; and hospitalization. This site also includes confirmed cases by municipality as well as confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths by age.
Led by Supervisors Matt Veitch and Ed Kinowski, the Advisory Board is exploring how Saratoga County can continue to help local employers with personal protective equipment.
Supervisor Eric Connolly worked with Sheriff Zurlo and myself to create a video which allowed the Sheriff to talk about the most common complaints his office is receiving. As you might guess, most complaints are about the wearing or not wearing of masks. This video can be viewed at www.reopeningsaratogacounty.com.
At the recommendation of the Saratoga County Reopening Committee, the Board of Supervisors voted 17 to 6 to authorize an expenditure of $50,000 out of the $1 million COVID 19 budget to promote Saratoga County’s Reopening within the Capital and Hudson Valley regions.
The Saratoga County Chamber was asked to create and manage this campaign. We agreed to do so at no cost to the County so that every dollar spent will help to attract visitors and customers to our locally owned businesses as they do everything they can to survive this pandemic.
This ad campaign will reach hundreds of thousands of people via social media, digital marketing and television advertising.
We’re inviting people to “Feel the Freedom” in Saratoga County.
Every week now, the reopening advisory board is being updated on this campaign and its reach. We’re monitoring data to see what impacts reopening our local economy is having on public health.
We’re confident that this type of public-private partnership will help us to reopen our economy safely and that we are Stronger Together.
