Butler County leaders are banding together in an urgent message to residents that help is needed to slow the spread of COVID-19.
According to Butler County’s Director of Emergency Management Steve Bicehouse, during the county’s weekly call with school and health officials, there was a collective agreement that “an urgent call to action was needed as institutions and businesses begin to see challenges in staffing.”
County Commissioner Kevin Boozel said at a press conference Thursday that limiting the spread of the virus plays a major role in keeping business moving.
“All those businesses are going to take hits, as the schools are, without staff,” Boozel said. “If you don’t have staff, you don’t have employees, you don’t have people working, you can’t serve people, so we know that’s going to be a huge economic hit to our community.”
They are asking residents to wear a mask, avoid large gatherings, wash your hands, and keep six feet apart.
County Commissioner Leslie Osche also added that the county has done a good job so far of limiting the spread of the virus, and hopes it can rise to the challenge now.
“We fought hard to get everyone open and keep everyone open. It’s in the best interest of our kids who need to be in school, our parents who basically need the childcare so they can go to work,” Osche said.
She also added that not everyone in Butler can switch to working from home.
“In our county, we have a lot of people working in manufacturing, you don’t get to work remotely,” Osche said.
County leaders also cited sports leagues that are unaffiliated with schools continuing to play and have practices—they say that hinders the message to help stop the spread.
Officials also say they recognize that virus fatigue has led the community to let down its guard. Commissioner Kim Geyer says it’s better to have the community to take proactive measures voluntarily in order to avoid mandatory interventions.
“Together it’s better to be preventive about it,” Geyer said. “If we can exercise measures and interventions that prevent us from getting to the point where there’s a crisis, than I would rather use the preventive measures first.”
Their message is as follows:
“WEAR YOUR MASK! AVOID LARGE GATHERINGS! BUTLER COUNTY FOUGHT HARD TO PROTECT OUR HEALTH SYSTEM, KEEP OUR CHILDREN SAFE IN SCHOOL, PROTECT OUR VULNERABLE SENIORS, AND KEEP OUR BUSINESSES OPEN AND OUR WORKFORCE HEALTHY! BUT WE ARE SEEING THE VIRUS GET AHEAD OF US. WE CAN’T STOP NOW! AGAIN, WEAR YOUR MASK. WASH YOUR HANDS. CLEAN SURFACES. KEEP 6 FEET APART. AVOID NON-CRITICAL ACTIVITIES WHERE SOCIAL DISTANCING OR MASKING IS NOT POSSIBLE. ONLY YOU CAN KEEP BUTLER COUNTY OPEN NOW!“
