COVID-19
As many of you have seen from recent posts on the City’s Facebook page, the current health crisis has been priority one for the City of Hillsboro. We have had to take some unprecedented measures to insure the health and safety of our citizens:
- We have closed city hall (including the public library) and have limited city staff working hours and contact (internal & external).
- We have closed the park equipment, basketball courts, the golf course and the disc golf course.
- We have placed a hold on all city recreation programming.
- We have closed the Scout House and public picnic shelters.
We have made these decisions deliberately and thoughtfully. None have been taken lightly. We have been in close communication with the Marion County Health Department, which takes the lead in the county for a health crisis like this in making these decisions.
There have been an increasing number of questions coming from our golfing community as to why we have closed the golf course. There are two primary reasons for doing so:
The safety and security of our city employees. As information we only have one employee managing and maintaining our course.
Continuing to deliver the highest level of service to citizens in our core service areas that include; police, fire, electricity, water, sewage, and waste collection along with basic care and maintenance of facilities and grounds open to the general public.
Some additional information we gathered; In an April 8 newsletter from the National Golf Foundation, only 44% of the nation’s golf courses were open at that time. We received the following quote from the City Manager of Salina in response to our inquiry about their golf course situation…
Jason Tiller, Director of the Saline County Health Department has previously noted that “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should” and Salina Mayor Mike Hoppock noted “The City of Salina should lead by example and take the Stay in Place Order seriously” and suggested that our motto should be “Sacrifice 30 days of your life to save the life of another”.
We will maintain these closures until we have direction that it is safe for our community to do so, and look forward to again offering our full recreation programming to our community.
High-Speed Internet Update
The project continues to move forward even in this current crisis. We will update you further as we can provide additional details. Be assured, this project will happen.
City Administrator Update
The council continues our search process for our next City Administrator. We received over 25 resumes and with support and review of Osenbaugh Consultants we have selected four extremely qualified candidates to interview. We will conduct our initial interviews using online tools, but rest assured we will not make a final selection without an in-person interview.
Stay tuned for further updates on this important process as well!
Final thoughts
I know not every decision I make will be met with cheers. These are unprecedented times and I am personally feeling the responsibility, but that goes with the position you elected me to, and I will continue to do perform it to the best of my abilities. I appreciate your support and your prayers, especially during this challenging time.
“Things are not always right because they are hard, but if they are right one must not mind if they are also hard.” – Winston Churchill
