Letters from the Mayor

4/24/2020

Citizens,

Last week I provided some information on data that said we were not ready to open the beach based on current information.  Over the last few weeks we have been asking our Health Officials and our Hospital Leaders for some metrics so we could continue to make judgements based on facts. In our communications with all County Officials on Wednesday this information was provided. I am thankful for the support of our County, Health, and Hospital teams for the leadership and support they have provided. County Management is taking important Hospital Measures to come up with indicators to help all our municipalities make safe decisions.    

To start there are 12 key hospital measurements that they use to trigger action in a variety of areas from PPE, staff, patients, breakouts, testing and others. They have done a tremendous job in planning and increasing the capacity of the hospital to deal with critical patients and for this period they are in the GREEN. If certain Guard Bands are hit then we will go RED and need to scale back for a period of time. With this guidance we feel we can take controlled measures to open the beach soon for exercise related activities. These activities and rules will be addressed in a note from Mayor Pro-Tem David Heglar once they are approved by Council.

You need to realize that the risks are still with us. There are people that do not know they are carriers and this disease does not impact everyone the same. That means you absolutely must still follow the social and health guidelines and unless you are exercising or doing essential things stay in place. 

Regards,

Craig Bloszinsky 

Mayor Kure Beach 

4/21/2020

Dear Citizens of Kure Beach,

As you may have guessed the Town Council is receiving letters from constituents. We have demands to open the beach and demands to keep it closed, demands across the spectrum of activities that at this point are restricted as part of the protective measures for all of us during this pandemic. I hope this letter will provide a sense of what is driving our decisions. We want to open as quickly as possible. There positively is real suffering going on, the medical folks and first responders risking their lives and families, small business owners risking economic collapse,  furloughed workers risking homes and financial problems, and people without food or shelter. This is true risk and danger and suffering, access to beach and sports is a want not a need.  If you are inclined to help others visit the website and sign on for volunteer work. 

The beach is the primary concern because although each community has sports facilities and places for walking, riding, etc, the beach is unique and special and draws people from across the state and other states as well. Let’s deal with what the experts tell us because none of us are experts. This disease is stealthy, you can transmit the disease without symptoms and not realizing you are a carrier. Dr. Fauci suggested that only 25 to 50% of the infected would display symptoms. In New Hanover County we have 62 cases, that’s terrific and we can be very happy that the cases are still growing in low numbers due to the good work by all. Our State and pool of visitors has 10.4 million residents,  78,772 have been tested or .0075% of the population, 6493 are positive or .08% of the tested population is positive, 465 of these are currently hospitalized, the rest are recovered or in self quarantine. Math says that 10.3 million in NC are not tested. That number of untested does not make me feel safe in considering the potential number of people that may have the virus without current symptoms. This is why the Health Professionals are calling for more testing, tracing and tracking to provide the right direction and why a vaccine is so important.   

Citizens, if we get this wrong and our hasty actions drive a new surge we will have a much longer period of sacrifice and suffering and potential loss of life. If we can stay the course a few more weeks it is possible that we can start to normalize with partial openings. Let’s all work together and then we will all get a chance to enjoy our wants much sooner and more families will not suffer loss. 

Best Regards,

Craig Bloszinsky 

Mayor Kure Beach