Ramps to remain closed as county awaits Gov. update

Posted on April 22, 2020

Three weeks into Florida Gov. Rick DeSantis’ month-long “Safer at Home” executive order, county officials say they are maintaining the status quo and awaiting further guidance from the state before considering re-opening public boat ramps and county offices that were closed due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Three weeks into Florida Gov. Rick DeSantis’ month-long “Safer at Home” executive order, county officials say they are maintaining the status quo and awaiting further guidance from the state before considering re-opening public boat ramps and county offices that were closed due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

“We’re taking it one day at a time,” County Administrator LaWanda Pemberton said Tuesday. “We’re waiting for an update from the governor’s office as far as their plans to re-open on the state level.”

Currently, there have been two confirmed cases of coronavirus in Taylor County (see story above).

“At this point, we’re looking at the numbers and waiting on guidance from Gov. DeSantis on whether he is going to extend his executive order and any decisions made by the newly-formed task force.”

The governor’s executive “stay-at-home” order, which went into effect April 3, asked many Florida residents to stay at home for 30 days except for “essential” activities.

On Monday, DeSantis announced the establishment of a “Re-Open Florida Task Force,” which includes executives from Walt Disney World and Universal Studios, as well as business leaders and elected officials from around the state.

Locally, county offices remain closed to the public, although residents can still secure necessary services by phone or online.

The county’s public boat ramps remain have remained locked down since April 2, after the commission voted the day before to close them in light of the coronavirus outbreak due to the number of people from outside the county utilizing the ramps during the crisis. Due to the county’s use of federal grant funds to construct many of the local ramps, county officials are legally unable to close ramps to out-of-county users only while keeping them open for Taylor County residents.

At its April 6 meeting, the commission agreed to close all but four of the county’s roll-off sites and place containers outside the fence at the other sites. The four roll-off sites that remain staffed are Carlton Cemetery, Steinhatchee, Shady Grove and U.S. 98/CR 14, and those hours are Monday through Saturday from 2 to 7 p.m. (closed Sunday).

“We’ve kept a close eye on our roll-off sites,” Pemberton said. “I believe there was some confusion at first over which sites were open and the hours, but we’ve put signage up at the sites and updated our website. I’m happy to say the citizens have been helpful and cooperative.”

Acknowledging several sites were left with trash on the ground during the first few days of the new schedule, Pemberton said the county has retrofitted a number of containers to be shorter, allowing easier access to residents.

“When we first put this into action, we were working on retrofitting the containers,” she said. “The ones we put out first were tall and maybe harder to use.”

Pemberton said the combination of shorter and more containers at each site has helped the situation.

“Since then, I’ve been down to the sites, and there has been very little trash on the ground,” she said.

“I’ve been very grateful for the way the citizens have been very helpful through this process,” Pemberton said. “It allows our attendants to clean the sites quickly and spend their time switching out the containers.”

As with the boat ramp closures, the county commission approved the changes to the roll-off sites “until further notice.”

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