WHAT HAPPENED: Eyes
remained on Capitol Hill as leaders talked toward a deal, yet to come as of
this writing, on a COVID-19 relief package. At the state level, Gov. Roy Cooper
extended his Phase 2 Safer At Home order another five weeks.
WHAT IT MEANS: While no
deal is in, talking points about local government needs are circulating in D.C.
According to the National League of Cities, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
has repeated the message that relief to state and local governments will help
keep millions of people off of the unemployment rolls in the months
ahead.
ON TAP: A deal,
hopefully. We’ve also learned the Census Bureau will wrap up its community
outreach efforts at the end of September, one month earlier than previously
planned. The Census plays a big role in how much federal money communities get
overall with a variety of programs and opportunities, so it’s important your
community participates to the fullest.
THE SKINNY: As we work
toward help for our communities, we got a reminder of how fragile circumstances
are in a usual summer as Hurricane Isaias shoved ashore early this week,
damaging property and spinning off a suspected tornado blamed for two deaths.
The
North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund is taking donations to offset needs in impacted
areas. Read on for more from this week.
North Carolina will stay
in the Phase 2 Safer At Home stage another five weeks as state officials seek
more progress in slowing down COVID-19. “Other states that lifted restrictions
quickly have had to go backward as their hospital capacity ran dangerously low
and their cases jumped higher. We will not make that mistake in North
Carolina,” said Gov. Roy Cooper in a press release. State Health and Human
Service Secretary Mandy Cohen said North Carolina’s numbers have leveled, but
with no assurances. “While overall we are seeing signs of stability, we still
have much work to do. Our recent trends show us what is possible when we commit
to slowing the spread by wearing face coverings and following those simple but
powerful 3Ws,” Cohen said. The “3Ws” are “wear a mask,” “wash your hands,”
“watch your distance.” You can view slides on the trends and metrics online. In a separate press release, the state says it has distributed roughly 3.5 million cloth face
coverings, 4.5 million procedure masks and “significant amounts” of other
personal protective equipment.
The U.S. Census Bureau has announced it will close out its community outreach operations by the end of
September, but before then will hire extra staffers to complete the data
collection that will add up to the 2020 Census results. “The Census Bureau’s
new plan reflects our continued commitment to conduct a complete count, provide
accurate apportionment data, and protect the health and safety of the public
and our workforce,” the Bureau explained. The decennial headcount has coincided
with COVID-19’s unprecedented limitations on most operations, but the Bureau says
it’s confident it can produce. “We will improve the speed of our count without
sacrificing completeness,” Bureau Director Steven Dillingham said. The Bureau
says it’s working with President Trump’s executive order and July 21 memorandum regarding the exclusion of non-citizens. “A team of experts are
examining methodologies and options to be employed for this purpose,”
Dillingham said.
The growing issue of
struggling utilities, like water systems, in rural North Carolina has made it
into headlines around the state lately. Now, an
in-depth piece running in several
newspapers takes a longer look at the issue and taps the League for comments.
The gist: COVID-19 and the health restrictions and consumer inactivity around
it are dealing crippling blows to an array of operations including utility providers,
which until just recently were not allowed to disconnect service for
nonpayment. Many of these utilities were already working through difficult math
in good times. “This crisis, this
pandemic, has created its own set of problems but basically it's layered those
problems on top of some already existing problems for a number of small, rural
municipal systems out there,” the newspaper article quotes of Scott Mooneyham,
director of political communications and coordination for the League. “They’ve
become overwhelming in some places.” The piece goes on to quote several local
and state officials before turning its eye to Capitol Hill and the negotiations
going on there toward a relief package that may or may not include local-level
lifelines. Mooneyham pointed out that the CARES Act money approved months ago
came with restrictions preventing use in the replacement of lost revenue.
Read the full story.
