April 23, 2020 Update

Welcome back, everyone.  It's Thursday and a payday week so hopefully life feels a bit better today.  I appreciate all of the comments yesterday about the video we shared right at the end.  If you missed it, you can see it on YouTube at https://youtu.be/U4c5eo_3-y0.

So let's start with some numbers.

Coronavirus Statistics

Nationally, there are 839,675 cases with 46,583 fatalities.

Utah Stats

Utah County:  611 total cases with 33 hospitalized and 6 fatalities.

News You Can Use

• Antibody testing in the US is leading to some interesting conclusions in New York.  A state survey of 3,000 residents found that 14% of those surveyed had Covid-19 antibodies, and in New York City, the number was 21% of those tested had antibodies for the disease.  This suggests that way more people than we have thought up to this point may have already had the disease and recovered.
• Reports today from Washington DC indicate that another 4.4 million Americans have filed for unemployment last week, with a total of about 26 million who have filed since the outbreak began.  In Utah, just under 20,000 residents filed last week, down from 24,000 people the week before.
• As mentioned yesterday, City staff and elected officials are working non-stop on the issues related to the pandemic.  We are working hard on getting final decisions on the FY 2021 budget, recognizing that budgets will be hard this year due to the pandemic and the resulting recession.  We will be working withe directors early next week to make the final changes needed before submitting the Mayor's recommended budget to the employees, residents and Municipal Council on May 5.
• We are also working on finalizing our gradual reopening of city facilities like the golf course, the recreation center, the library, the ice arena and the Covey Center in accordance with the Governor's Utah Leads Together 2.0 plans and guidelines.  More information will also be made available next week as plans are ready to be put in motion.

Provo Social Media

• We have been getting a lot of feedback about our employees who are involved in parking enforcement.  It is a tough time with so many residents needing to stay home and thus leaving cars parked on the streets for longer than the 72 consecutive hours the city ordinance allows.  We posted some clarifications to our policy on citing those vehicle owners on Facebook and Twitter today.  Please feel free to share or retweet if you hear of friends or neighbors who might benefit from knowing the plan.
• Provo City Events is sponsoring a Chalk the Rec Lot event on August 29 and 30 at the Provo Recreation Center parking lot.  If you are an aspiring chalk artist or you know one, you can sign up here for a spot and to learn the rules of the event.  

The Mayor's Day

Today the Mayor:

• Met with the Municipal Council chair, vice-chair and council staff
• Met to discuss the current state of the Zagster scooter contract as well as potential bike share opportunities
• Met with the architects and contractors of the City Center/Public Safety Building to discuss the status of the final design and earthwork that has begun on the site
• Met with the budget team on finalizing plans for the FY 2021 budget
• Met with impacted department directors to talk about policies for handling utility bill delinquencies caused by the economic challenges of the Coronavirus pandemic
• Met with Utah County Commissioners and mayors in their weekly coordination meeting on issues related to the pandemic
• Met with the board of the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the monthly regional transportation planning meeting

Coronavirus Resources for Employees

• Provo City HR has arranged for employees to participate in a series of 10-minute mindfulness exercises between April 28 and May 1.  You can learn more about these events here. 
• Behavioral Health Options also has a recording from a recent webinar about mental health support for first responders during the pandemic.  Information about registering to listen to the recording is available here.

Announcement

If you are working from home and would like to share your story, we'd love to hear it.  Just drop me an email at wparker@provo.org and let us know how you set up your "home office," what you do to stay focused and limit distractions, if you have any tips for making it work, and any "war stories" as a remote worker.  A picture of you in your home office might also be fun.  I will feature a few of those stories here in the coming weeks.

Fun Stuff

So . . . a while ago we talked musical tastes. Like lots of folks, whatever else you like, you may like the Beach Boys.  This little parody of the Beach Boys classic Kokomo seems to hit just the right spot on how many of us are dealing with social distancing and stay at home directives.  So, enjoy and have a great weekend!

Take care and stay safe!

Wayne