BREAKING: County closes all parks, but keeps boat ramps open

Posted on March 25, 2020

During an emergency meeting held Wednesday evening, the Taylor County Commission voted to close all county parks, but opted to keep the county’s public boat ramps open at this time.

The county park closures include Hodges Park in Keaton Beach and the Taylor County Sports Complex.

The board called the meeting to consider closing all county facilities in light of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, but ultimately voted to not include county-owned public boat ramps. The board also declined to implement a proposed 11 p.m. – 5 a.m. curfew.

Although the meeting lasted nearly 90 minutes, those who called in and attempted to listen to the meeting via a conference call were unable to hear any of the proceedings.

County Administrator LaWanda Pemberton said county staff had successfully tested the system multiple times over the past two days, adding that they decided prior to the meeting to move it the Taylor County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) from the board’s usual meeting room to improve the sound quality.

However, as the meeting was about to begin, the system was apparently overloaded by the number of people calling in, Pemberton said. Although the system has a “mute all” feature to mute the audio from those calling in, it failed to work during the meeting.

Pemberton said they attempted to use a conference call instead of other teleconferencing services in order to allow the most people to participate, including those without computers or smart phones. She added that there had been reports earlier Wednesday of internet issues in Steinhatchee.

Although people could not listen to the meeting live, the proceeding were recorded and will be added to the county’s website Thursday, Pemberton said.

According to Pemberton, the commission voted to give her the authority to close all county buildings to the public (which has been the case since Monday), and instructed her to monitor the coronavirus testing figures from the Florida Department of Health.

Should a positive case be reported in Taylor County, another meeting will be held to consider what next steps the commission will take.

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