We received a letter from Sebastian Mayor Ed Dodd regarding some insight about actions the City Government has taken since they declared a Municipal State of Emergency.

Here’s the letter dated March 25, 2020.

Sebastian Daily,

Thanks for your updates of COVID-19 information, they are timely and provide residents with current data.

The City is posting updated information about actions taken by the City Manager on our City of Sebastian website, and our Facebook Page.

I would like however to provide some insight about actions the City Government has taken since we declared a Municipal State of Emergency. It is important to remember that this emergency is unlike any we have encountered.

Our normal emergency plans are having to be changed on the fly as we react to direction from the Federal and State Government Emergency Management Offices. Sebastian is coordinating with both the Indian River County Emergency Management Office and with each municipal Manager within the county.

The best service we can provide our residents is to make sure we are working with the County and State who will be providing needed services Paul Carlisle, our City Manager, has taken steps to protect our staff and citizens by canceling all public meetings, closing most city facilitates, and implementing ways for the public to conduct business with the city using electronic means.

We have not closed all parks.

However, the City staff are cleaning park equipment daily at our major parks and every other day at all others. The golf course is open but is restricting access to the pro-shop and limiting carts to one occupant.

If we receive direction from the State of Florida, we will close parks but hope this will not be necessary. The City is also working to assist the state in enforcement of state-imposed sanctions such as business closings and limiting crowd size.

Sebastian has little if any ability to impact the health-related issues of this emergency. We can make sure our police offices have protective equipment, which we have done. However testing and care services fall within the jurisdiction of the County Health Department and Federal or State agencies who support these functions.

The City’s management and staff stand ready to assist these agencies as needed to protect our residents.

Please rest assured that we are doing everything possible to protect our residents and staff and will continue doing so as long as this emergency lasts.

Ed Dodd
Mayor, City of Sebastian

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