Volusia County waiting on governor's order to begin a phased reopening

Ormond Beach Observer
News

With the statewide stay-at-home order due to COVID-19 set to expire on Thursday, April 30, Volusia County will follow the governor's lead on reopening businesses and services.

Deputy County Manager Suzanne Konchan said that, while coronavirus cases are beginning to decline in Volusia, staff is considering the event to still be ongoing and reopening efforts will be phased across all estimated 40 county divisions.

Notably, that includes reopening the beaches to all activities, which Konchan said the county is ready to do so as soon as it is in accordance with Gov. Ron DeSantis' order. Konchan acknowledged that the beaches have been a "very focused and highlighted" element of the county's plan to reopen, and said the county has a shipment of utility posts on the way; these posts will act as temporary markers to maintain social distancing for cars parked on the beach.

The county is also considering putting in place a social distancing recommendation of over 6 feet when beaches reopen.

“As the tides the change as the beach, the capacity for people to spread out will ebb and flow because of the width of our beach," Konchan said.

The temporary markers will be spaced between every conservation pole on the beach (which are already spaced in 50-foot increments) to mark the halfway point of 25 feet. Cars will then be advised to park in the center of the areas marked by the poles.

Other county departments will see a similar approach based on the service they provide, Konchan said. For example, library buildings will likely reopen partially in May to allow residents to use computers by appointment.

No cases at county jail, but no tests have been administered

Volusia County has had zero cases of COVID-19 at the county jail — However, no inmates have been tested.

The council was informed of this after Volusia County Councilwoman Heather Post inquired about testing at the jail, to which County Corrections Director Mark Flowers responded that while testing is available, none of the inmates have shown symptoms and therefore have not been tested, though some are currently being monitored.

Flowers said if these inmates under observation were tested now, the Department of Health advised them they could see false negative results.

Post said that until testing is done, it was misleading of the county to claim there were no cases at the jail. In a phone call to the Ormond Beach Observer, Post said she wasn't asking for more testing, however. She said she just wanted the county to abstain from saying the jail has zero positive cases when no inmates have been tested for COVID-19.

County Councilwoman Deb Denys disagreed. She said proper precautions have been taken and the zero cases are something to be celebrated.

"I for one am going to continue to say until its different — but I'm going to pray it stays the same — that we have zero outbreaks," Denys said.

This brief was updated at 12:15 p.m. on Wednesday, April 29.

Konchan spoke about the county's plan to reopen about an hour after Beach Safety Director Ray Manchester informed the council that about 1,200 warnings were issued on Sunday, April 26, to people disregarding the rules about using the beach. Manchester said that the favorable weather brought a lot of groups and families to the beach, as well as an increase of hotel guests. People want to sunbathe or sit and read a book, he explained.

Still, only six citations have been issued.

“The compliance is very good but the message is not very popular,” Manchester said.

Another obstacle Beach Safety faces is that many are participating in what Manchester coined as "lack of compliance by deception" — people are only pretending to be exercising when they see Beach Safety approaching.

A lot of the lifeguards are also teenagers, and they have trouble enforcing the regulations, Manchester added. People ignore them and the lifeguards have to call Beach Safety officers over to get people to comply.

County Council Chair Ed Kelley said the county's message could be "cleared up" if they allowed sunbathing and sitting on the beach. For example, if a person wants to go fishing on the beach and their spouse wants to accompany them, they should be able to sit in a chair.

“I think the sooner that we can relax, to a degree, enforce the social distancing, the less of these kinds of issues we’re going to have," he said.

County Councilman Ben Johnson said Volusia has been "attacked" for both reopening the beaches and closing them.

“And the people who are going to the beach better realize when they do not adhere to the rules, they’re making their own case for not opening the beach again if this picks back up again," he said.