From the Executive Director of the Arkansas Municipal League
P
andemic. For years that word meant very little to most of us. We heard periodic references to epidemics, those fast-moving illnesses that spread to individuals in a community or a region. Pandemic, however, was a word used by research scientists and historians. It wasn’t real to us because it hadn’t happened to us. Well, not like COVID-19 has. There was a pandemic in 2009 known as H1N1. Eventually it morphed into the (H1N1)pdm09 virus. It lasted about a year and over 12,000 Americans lost their lives to it. The most famous, or perhaps better said, infamous pandemic occurred in 1918. It was by far the most severe pandemic in recent history. It is often referred to as the Spanish flu. One third of the world’s population became infected and approximately 50 million people died, with about 675,000 deaths occurring in the United States. Two more pandemics have occurred in the past 70 years, one in the late 1950s and the other in the late 1960s, both lasting about a year. Respectively they are known as the H2N2 and the H3N2 viruses and they killed a little over 2 million people worldwide and a little over 200,000 in the United States. In comparison, almost 4.7 million of our fellow Americans have contracted COVID-19, and more than 156,000 lives have been lost. Moreover, COVID has struck more than 18.4 million people worldwide and over 696,000 have died. Those statistics are even more frightening considering two factors. One, COVID has only been with us for approximately five months. Two, medical science is at an alltime high for advances and the ability to care for those who are sick. I realize that’s not a very cheery way to open this letter. However, it is important to put into perspective municipal services and products in this very dire time. Cities and towns in Arkansas are on the frontlines of this COVID fight and in most instances those officials had a full-time job before the virus struck. First responders are, well, the first line of defense. Municipal police, firefighters and ambulance personnel see the virus up close and personal every shift. City and town water departments are helping those who lost jobs by allowing partial payments or
deferring payments. Can you imagine our health care system without proper water and sewer systems? City halls must be open for business, so officials have adapted to make their locations sanitary and safe. After all, Arkansans still need building and business permits, they need to put in zoning and planning requests. In other words, the business of being in city business cannot and does not shut down. The same holds true for the League. We’ve implemented mask mandates at League headquarters, allowed telework for most of the staff, gone to four-day work weeks for certain departments and we’re all professionals at virtual meetings. In short, we’ve adapted because the work must still be done. Moreover the League continues to provide top-notch services and products for its membership. Our publications are still some of the best in the country, if not the best. We dedicated a page on our website to COVID-19 information and it includes amongst many other things: the governor’s executive orders and directives, the health department’s directives, updates on federal laws like CARES, HEALS and leave time, and over 20 informational documents created by League staff to address numerous COVID/ municipal issues. What does this mean for Block, Street & Building? It means everything. Cities and towns have adapted to the “new normal” because they had to. More importantly, however, municipal leaders rose to the challenges brought on by COVID and turned them into opportunities. Rather than saying they couldn’t, they said, “We can, and we will.” As a result, economic development can continue, albeit in unique ways, infrastructure continues to be addressed and urban planning is occurring daily. COVID-19 is here to stay until there’s a vaccine. Municipal government is here to stay regardless of what the next new normal brings our way. Cities and towns are the backbone of the basic services needed every day by every Arkansan who lives in a municipality. From parks to planning, from police to water and from zoning to youth programs, municipalities do it all. Great cities do indeed make a great state!
MUNICIPAL LEADERS ROSE TO THE CHALLENGES BROUGHT ON BY COVID AND TURNED THEM INTO OPPORTUNITIES.
Mark R. Hayes Executive Director Arkansas Municipal League 6 | BLOCK, STREET & BUILDING VOLUME 6 | 2020
