From the desk of Mayor Dave Hatter

March 13, 2020

Dear Citizens,

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I wanted to let you know that we are closely and carefully monitoring the COVID-19 situation. YOUR team continues to make preparations and maintains constant communication with local and state health and emergency management professionals. As you may be aware, a unified State of Emergency has recently been declared by several counties in the Northern Kentucky region including Kenton County. While the situation is serious and requires caution and diligence, there is no reason to panic. 

Thankfully, we are blessed with a very dedicated team here in Fort Wright, and City Council is working with me to ensure that our first responders have everything they need to ensure their safety as well as the capability to assure your safety. The delivery of critical safety services is our top priority at this point, and plans are in place to rescind staff vacations and implement mandatory overtime if the situation requires it. In short, we are hoping for the best, but planning for the worst.

To that end, we will be focused on public safety, and services not directly related to public safety may experience a delay. I ask for your understanding and patience during this State of Emergency. Per the guidance from health experts, we will cancelling all non-essential public meetings and would ask you to use our website, the phone or email to conduct any City related business that does not absolutely require a visit to the City Building. We have ramped up cleaning and sanitization services at the City Building as we may need to use it as a staging center as this situation progresses. So for the sake of your health and that of our staff, please avoid any non-essential trips to the City Building until the State of Emergency is lifted.

For many years, the City motto has been "Neighbors Helping Neighbors", and at this uncertain and unprecedented time, we ask you take that motto to heart. We are all in this together, and we must work together to get through it as safely and quickly as possible. Please check on neighbors who may be in need of assistance and let us know if you are aware of someone that requires help. One way you can help would be to go to the store for elderly or infirm neighbors to minimize their exposure. We also ask you to patronize our local businesses to help them stay afloat during this difficult time. Again, we're all in this together, and we need to pull together as a community.

We have been and will continue to use our City social media channels to share reliable information from reputable sources. I urge you to scrutinize any information that you find online and be cautious and judicious with what you share. Please stick to reputable sources such as the Northern Kentucky Health Department and/or the Centers For Disease Control. We will continue to share as much information with you as possible during these uncertain times and we encourage you to stay connected with us via email, Facebook and Twitter. We also ask you to share this information with your neighbors if they are not connected with us.

As of this email and based on the most recent information that I could find from the NKY Health Department, there are no known cases of COVID-19 in Northern Kentucky, but that is expected to change. Please remain calm and follow the guidance from the NKY Health Department found here: https://nkyhealth.org/individual-or-family/health-alerts/coronavirus/ or the CDC found here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html. If you are feeling ill, please contact your physician before going to the emergency room. And know that there is some good news, the first Kentucky COVID-19 patient has been released from the hospital: https://www.wkyt.com/content/news/First-Kentucky-COVID-19-patient-released-from-hospital-568772761.html.

We will continue to monitor the situation closely and will adjust our response as necessary to meet rapidly changing conditions. 

I ask you to remain calm, be patient and help your neighbors and our team in any way you can.  

We will get through this together, and I would appreciate your thoughts and prayers for our team and their families at this difficult time. 

As always, if you have questions or concerns, please call 859.331.1700 or email us at [email protected].

Thank You.

Dave Hatter, Mayor
City of Fort Wright