By L. Parsons During a telephonic meeting of the Winslow City Council last week, Mayor Tom McCauley announced that the Winslow transfer station has returned to its normal business hours. “We do ask that you provide proof of residence, which includes any 86047 zip code address.” He also noted that the parks and recreation department opened on Monday, May 18. “That means our parks (are) open for use and the rental of the Girl Scout House will be available. We are still working to see what the library is going to do. As always, please practice social distancing and exercise precautions.” For information on rental of facilities or modified schedules, contact the Winslow Recreation Department at (928) 289-5714. The council was also joined by Little Colorado Medical Center’s (LCMC) CEO Jack Dempsey and Clinic Supervisor Doug Umlah. Dempsey began by saying, “First of all, I would like to just note the seriousness of the situation we have all been facing over the last two months. Though it is a national concern, our area has been experiencing it on another level. Those that have lost loved ones, this is a very difficult time and we appreciate the remarkable work of our city leaders and of course our staff for this remarkable collaboration.” He added, “We do have good news in that our numbers are stabilizing.” Umlah said, “At the hospital we are meeting every morning with all of our partners and going through the statistics for COVID in our state and in our county. The cases are still going up and we will see that because we are starting to get more tests throughout the state. “There are two different tests, we have a test for the active virus and the antibody tests that will start here in Winslow next week. Hopefully, anybody that wants the antibody test will be able to get that. It is a partnership with the University of Arizona. At first, it will just be health care workers and first responders, but we will have more information on that in the days ahead. Hospitalizations have stabilized in Arizona as a whole with people 65 years of age and older have more hospitalizations. The number of deaths has also come down overall in the state. That is a positive trend. As far as Winslow, we have seen that our total number of COVID positive tests has been pretty stable. We haven’t had a huge increase.” He continued, “We aren’t seeing our normal patient volume at LCMC so we want to remind people that if you have an emergency or a medical concern, go to the hospital. The Emergency Department is safe, the hospital is safe. We have capacity and have the ability to get patients in and get them treated.” Moving forward, Umlah said, “We will be re-opening our elective surgeries and services. We have already started some well child and well woman exams and will be opening that up even more starting next week. We will be implementing other infection control measures, like not using our waiting rooms. I think this will be our new normal, waiting rooms will likely be a thing of the past. We also still have visitor restrictions and are screening anyone who comes into the buildings.” Navajo County Supervisor Jesse Thompson also addressed the council with an update on the Winslow Levee project. “About 28 years ago, the Little Colorado River overtook the levee. Since then, repairing the levee has been a priority. We have been working with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Government to fix about four miles of the levee. This has been a long, slow process. Congressman Tom O’Halloran sent a letter to the government strongly requesting funding for the next phase of the project, which will be engineering and design phase. Our project is finally set for congressional review this year.” In his status report, Winslow City Manager John Barkley said, “In projecting our revenues for fiscal year 2020-2021, we have gone line by line to make sure everything we do is absolutely essential through the course of the next fiscal year. Each of our departments will have a revised budget to present to you, as usual in June.” In other business, the council: * Approved an amendment to the city municipal code to clarify language regarding possession of alcohol on city property. The amendment includes property leased by the city. * Approved a permanent liquor license application to extend property of the Elks Lodge, located at 315 W. Third St. * Appointed Councilman Robin Boyd to the Municipal Property Corporation until Nov. 17. * Appointed Brandee Leary and Brian Law to the Historic Preservation Commission until May 1, 2023. * Appointed Robert Zaccaria to the Planning and Zoning Committee until Dec. 31. * Approved a revision of the budget calendar, which reschedules the council meetings in July to July 6 and 27. The next meeting of the Winslow City Council will be at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 26, at the Hubbell building, located at 523 W. Second Street.
