Stopping the Spread of COVID-19 and Protecting the Health, Safety and Welfare of Our Community.
To the Lakeport Community:
We want to assure you that the men and women of the city departments have been continuing to work day and night to safeguard the Lakeport community. We have developed procedures to protect the public and our staff in order to keep our officers patrolling on the streets, keep our public infrastructure in order and take care of other basic needs. Our City Hall and police department offices are open during business hours with new procedures to limit direct contact with staff.
We ask that you help us help you by following the Shelter at Home orders from Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace as well as the Governor’s executive order. Also, that you limit your travels within the city for those necessary trips to doctors’ appointments, grocery shopping, trips to the pharmacy and other allowed essential activities. Please practice social distancing, cover coughs, and wash your hands often.
During the past weeks, we have had to close parks, Clear Lake and other areas as we found that many people were not taking these orders seriously. Some activities were encouraging others from beyond our borders to come into our community. People were coming to escape the Bay area while others were showing a disregard for our safety by failing to practice social distancing.
To quote a New York Times article, “Containment becomes realistic only when Americans realize that working together is the only way to protect themselves and their loved ones.”
The life you save may be someone close to you or an elderly parent or friend. The goal is to prevent this virus from gaining a foothold in our community and overwhelming our local healthcare system. As has been stated before, our local healthcare system does not have capacity for an outbreak.
During fire season you would not have lit fireworks in dry grass but many individuals are doing just that by failing to take the Public Health orders seriously. To date we do not have a confirmed case of COVID-19 in Lake County, but we know from other areas that this may not be the situation for long. We have taken an educational approach in our police actions but we are prepared to move into enforcement if the need arises.
This is a quickly evolving situation and we sometimes have to adapt on an hourly basis. The City of Lakeport has been preparing for several weeks for our response to this crisis. We are working with the Public Health Officer and our local partners and are coordinating statewide with state and federal agencies to get the most current information.
Lakeport is a strong community and we will “shine through” together and recover from the impacts of this pandemic. Please stay strong and healthy and check on your neighbors. We will be here for the needs of our residents and businesses today, tomorrow and into the future!
You can obtain further information regarding the Coronavirus (COVID-19) at the Lake County Health Services Department at: http://health.co.lake.ca.us/Coronavirus.htm, or by calling (707) 263-8174 during business hours for questions related to the orders.
The City of Lakeport is also maintaining a resource page at: https://www.cityoflakeport.com/covid-19_updates.php.
Additionally, our City Emergency Operations Center telephone at 707-263-5683 is being answered during business hours.
Margaret Silveira, City Manager
Brad Rasmussen, Chief of Police
