Guest column

East Rockaway Mayor Bruno Romano: We stay united while being distant

Posted

When we first heard of the Covid-19 virus, we were concerned about how we were going to protect our residents.

The village board and I immediately took action to shutdown our Recreation Center, Senior Center, library and parks to any visitors. We have also developed a plan to operate our Village Hall without having anyone enter the building. We have a drop-box outside the door for all types of permits, tickets, licenses and other municipal transactions that need to be processed. Our staff monitors the mailbox for documents and properly completes the transactions and either mails them back to our residents or has individuals pick them up with an appointment.

Our main concern was to respond to rescue calls and save lives. We have to insure that our first responders in our ambulances were properly suited up with personal protective equipment so our volunteers would be safe after responding to Covid-19 calls. Our emergency management team was proactive in procuring equipment from Nassau County and the state, as we anticipated a high volume of calls. I was on the phone with Congresswoman Kathleen Rice requesting personal protective equipment to get us through the tough days ahead of us. Special thanks to all of our local legislators who have reached out to me and donated very urgently needed masks.

Our first responder rescue unit and Fire Department are doing an outstanding job in our village, cautiously handling calls. I wish to thank each and every one of our volunteers for their time, efforts and heroism in responding to our residents. I want to say thank you to our 4th Precinct Police Department, doctors, nurses and front-line hospital workers.

We should also send a big thank you to all our businesses in our community, who are still suppling food and services to our residents. These are certainly challenging times, we all appreciate their tremendous efforts in keeping everything moving. When at all possible, we must all help our small businesses as they are struggling and this virus has hurt them financially. We cannot forget to include the post office, FedEx, UPS and other mail services for allowing us the ability to serve residents by delivering mail and packages.

A special thank you to all of our residents for helping and staying home during this pandemic. I know that this has been difficult, but this is the only way in which we are able to control the spread.

Although the weather is starting to turn nice, we must all be vigilant and understand that the virus could resurge again. We must continue to stay safe.