Local

NEWBERRY – The City of Newberry is moving the scheduled April election to August. During the March 23 City Commission meeting, commissioners grappled with the best way to proceed with the scheduled April 14 municipal election in light of the Covid-19 virus.

Although the City has urged people to request vote by mail ballots this year, City Clerk Judy Rice said that only 25 people have chosen to vote in that manner so far.

Safety measures identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) regarding slowing the spread of the Corona Virus focused the City’s attention on how to adequately protect citizens who show up to vote at the polls. Options to move the polling location to a larger facility and to establish six-foot wide separations between voters waiting in line were discussed, but not pursued.

In addition, he Alachua County Stay-at-Home Order issued on Monday, March 23 significantly limits candidates’ ability to meet with voters. Mayor Jordan Marlowe said he had asked candidates not to go door-to-door to visit with voters at this time.

After careful deliberation and discussion on possible alternative dates in June or August, as well as consideration of proceeding with the April 14 election date, commissioners voted to move the election to the second Tuesday in August. Incumbent Commissioner Monty Farnsworth abstained from voting on the election date to avoid a possible conflict of interest.

Mark Clark and Walt Boyer, both of whom have already qualified, as well as the sitting commissioners, said they believed the Aug. 11 date would be less costly to the City in terms of financial expense and public safety.

Normally, the County Supervisor of Elections trains volunteers to act as poll workers. Many who have served in that capacity in the past are retired citizens, some of whom would be at high risk. With the threat of the Corona Virus many who normally volunteer to serve have decided to stay at home. Due to the lack of normal County-provided poll workers, the City would be required to provide their own people.

A suggestion that City employees could be asked if they might want to volunteer to serve in that capacity was raised. The City Attorney suggested that employees might feel obligated to volunteer. This option would also cost the City more as they would have employees out for an eight-hour training session one day and would also be required to be at the polling location for 10-12 hours on April 14, which would mean overtime.

Although Alachua County may well still be in the grip of Covid-19 in August, the extension of time will allow the City to develop additional action plans. Another benefit of extending the election to August is that the County Supervisor of Elections will be training their own poll workers for the August election date, which alleviates the need for the City to address that issue.

Commissioner Rocky McKinley originally agreed to serve until the April election. Mayor Marlowe said he had asked McKinley if he would stay on to serve if Commissioners decided to change the election date. He said he would remain in his position until a new commissioner is elected.

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ALACHUA COUNTY - A message from the Alachua County School Board to Alachua County Public School families and staff.

As we shared last week, Alachua County Public Schools has developed an Instructional Continuity Plan so that our students can continue the learning process while schools are closed due to COVID-19. The state of Florida has said that instruction must begin again after Spring Break, which means we will be gearing up again on March 30.

If you have not yet done so, please check out the Plan at https://bit.ly/39poIS6. You will find online resources for all grade levels in a variety of subjects.

You will access these materials through myPortal. If you or your child don’t know or can’t remember his or her myPortal user name and password, please follow the instructions at https://bit.ly/3bxBhvZ.

If you do not have a Family Access account, you can get one by contacting your child’s school on March 30 or by emailing familyaccessrequest@gm.sbac.edu. Please understand that we expect a high volume of calls at schools on Monday.

During the first few days of next week, teachers and other school staff will be reaching out to their families to help get everyone off to a good start and discuss specific needs related to remote learning. If you do not hear from your child’s school before April 1, we encourage you to call the school.

Obviously, this will be a very busy time for school staff, who will be working under very unusual circumstances. We appreciate your patience and flexibility as we all learn how to best to keep our kids engaged and learning during this difficult time!

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ALACHUA – The Department of Defense (DOD) has awarded a contract valued at $14 million with Alachua based Ology Bioservices Inc., a biologics contract development and manufacturing organization, to develop and manufacture a monoclonal antibody for treatment and prevention of infection with the COVID-19 virus.

“It gives DOD and interagency partners like Health and Human Services, along with our partners in industry and academia, the ability to respond quickly and develop the treatments our warfighters need to fight COVID-19 so they can continue protecting the nation.”

This work is supported by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs with funding from the Defense Health Agency.

Under this program, Ology Bioservices will work with Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) in Nashville, Tennessee to develop and manufacture the monoclonal antibody. The aim of the program is to rapidly and efficiently deliver the antibody to the Department of Defense.

Peter H. Khoury, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Ology Bioservices, noted, “We are tremendously honored to be working with the Department of Defense and Vanderbilt University Medical Center to rapidly respond to this crisis. The Advanced Development and Manufacturing Facility operated by Ology Bioservices stands ready to meet the needs of the U.S. warfighter and the nation at large.”

"The global health crisis we're seeing unfold right now with the coronavirus disease 2019 is exactly the kind of scenario the medical countermeasures Advanced Development and Manufacturing Facility was built for,” said Douglas Bryce, Joint Program Executive Officer for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Defense. “It gives DOD and interagency partners like Health and Human Services, along with our partners in industry and academia, the ability to respond quickly and develop the treatments our warfighters need to fight COVID-19 so they can continue protecting the nation."

Matthew Hepburn, M.D., Joint Project Lead CBRN Defense Enabling Biotechnologies, added, “This contract represents the realization of the prior investment in the DOD Advanced Development and Manufacturing Facility, in order to respond to biological threats and pandemics. The Ology Bioservices team will now endeavor to make a product to keep DOD personnel safe.”

Under the proposed terms of a pending agreement with VUMC, researchers in the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center (VVC) will be tasked in this program with rapid antibody discovery efforts as a performance site for the Pandemic Prevention Platform (P3) network of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

“Our team has been pushing 24/7 to isolate human monoclonal antibodies for SARS-CoV-2, and we are gratified to have the partnership of Ology Bioservices and the support of the U.S. DOD to prepare clinical grade antibody materials for rapid testing in clinical trials,” said James Crowe, M.D., director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center.

“This collaborative effort with the U.S. DOD Enabling Biotechnologies Office is a natural extension of our current effort to rapidly discover and deploy protective monoclonal antibodies for SARS-CoV-2 through the DARPA Pandemic Prevention Program (P3),” added VVC Associate Director Robert H. Carnahan, Ph.D. “Partnering with Ology Bioservices will allow these antibodies to quickly move towards human clinical trials in the coming months.”

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TALLAHASSEE —To keep Florida residents and visitors safe, informed and aware about the status of the virus, The Florida Department of Health has launched a COVID-19 dashboard that will be updated twice daily. As of  6 p.m. on March 25, 2020, there are 1,977 total** Florida cases.

• 295 additional positive COVID-19 cases (284 Florida residents and 11 non-Florida residents) reported to the Florida Department of Health.
• There are currently 1,867 positive cases in Florida residents and 110 positive cases in non-Florida residents.

FLORIDA - Florida's COVID-19 Data and Surveillance Dashboard; Florida Department of Health, Division of Disease Control and Health Protection

ALACHUA - As part of their ongoing efforts to help local communities during the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic, Hitchcock’s Markets, in partnership with the Hitchcock’s Charity Foundation, announced today that it will donate more than 3,000 free meals to families in need across its 10 stores.

Director of Store Operations, Ken Story, stated, “We are trying to get ahead of the curve, we know this will get worse financially for many people in our communities who may suddenly find themselves without a paycheck and may not have much disposable income to eat”. Ultimately, Hitchcock’s wants to provide a small bit of relief to their local communities during this stressful and uncertain time. The local chain prides itself in giving back to its communities throughout the year by donating more than 50,000 meals yearly to those in need.

The 3,000 meals will be distributed this Saturday, March 28 starting at 12 p.m. at all 10 Hitchcock’s Markets locations. Families in need are invited to visit the stores at this time to receive a free meal. The distribution will occur in the parking lots of the stores to limit exposure of customers and associates.

Hitchcock’s has store locations in the towns of Alachua, East Palatka, Hawthorne, Indiantown, Interlachen, Jasper, Keystone Heights, Newberry, Trenton and Williston.

In response to the current situation, Hitchcock’s has made several changes in its day-to-day operations. These include a heightened disinfection and sanitization program, an emphasis on restocking and product availability, and a change in store hours to better serve customers. All stores are currently opening 30 minutes early for the elderly population and closing at 8 p.m.

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