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The decision to close Borough Hall wasn’t made lightly, or by one individual.

I know we made the right decision, for I’d rather err on the side of caution, than carry the guilt of knowing someone fell ill because we didn’t do all we could to protect our residents, and office staff.

I was hoping a decision wouldn’t have to be made so soon, but the COVID-19 infection numbers jumped up faster than I thought they would.

Early last week, a week before the Governor Wolf’s announcement of all schools being closed, I got wind of teachers being instructed to create, “2-week take-home packets” for students.

I anticipated the local school districts I serve would close separately.

My first thought was a “mini-vacation” could be had, before things got ugly, and began looking at round-trip tickets to Las Vegas. With only a one day lead, I found I could book a flight to Vegas and back for $45. I figured to throw some money at the casinos and hopefully, come back with some of theirs, as I did last year.

Then, the numbers of COVID-19 cases in Pennsylvania began to increase. From around 12 then, to 47 on Friday. Today, the number jumped to 63, as reported on the CDC website, at 12:00 PM.

When Gov. Wolf announced the closing of all schools for 2 weeks, following Ohio and other states, I believe somebody from the CDC, or the state health department, provided numbers of projected cases doubling every few days, if a break in the incubation cycle of the virus wasn’t curtailed.

Thus, my vacation plans ended. You don’t leave your community when tough decisions have to be made after a pandemic is declared. Especially one that is appearing locally.

Because the vast majority under 20 years old don’t display symptoms, but are carriers who spread the virus, the most effective attempt to break the cycle would be to close schools and try and convince everyone to limit interaction with others.

That is, try to have as many people as possible let the virus run its course until they are no longer contagious.

Despite many who see the closings of government buildings as a result of government trying to keep away “the dirty masses,” as one local blogger wrote on Friday, the decision to close a government building to the public involves a responsibility to not only employees, but also those “masses” who visit them.

In the case of our Borough Hall, there was consideration given to simply providing hand wipes and hand sanitizer to visitors.

Of course, staff can not insist that a resident use them before they will be served. Then there was the matter of wiping the door handle, counter, and service window with sanitizer following each visitor departing.

Since COVID-19 is an airborne virus, sanitizing everything may have people feeling like they are accomplishing something, but the reality is that simply speaking with a contagious person, or handling a pen could transmit the virus.

Doing what we can to limit exposure is better than just ignoring the situation, hoping some miracle will end the pandemic.

Ours is a community of many older residents, the most susceptible to COVID-19, and one of the jobs of all governments is to take safety measures necessary to protect its citizens.

The efforts of West Easton over the last 4 years to bring the borough up to speed on technology has now delivered dividends, allowing us to still conduct business with residents and get out information as quickly as possible.

Need a permit or form?
Download it.
Need to contact someone at Borough Hall, or an elected official, but don’t have the email address?
Visit the website.
Want to check for an update on the borough’s actions?
Visit Facebook.
Want to be notified of important information in an emergency?
Opt-in to the Emergency Text Alert System.

All of this was not available before 2016, but today our borough, though now restricting face-to-face interaction at Borough Hall, can still operate and serve residents.

We’ve achieved the ability to serve residents and to also curtail the spread of COVID-19.

Hopefully, this national crisis will be under control quickly, but West Easton will deal with it for the duration.

We are neighbors who help neighbors, so reach out by phone to check on those who you think might be susceptible, or may need assistance in obtaining groceries or other essentials, so that they don’t have to deal with public crowds.

Stay healthy everyone!