Special Meeting to Opt-In to County Emergency Order Mandating Usage of Face Coverings

Dear Mayor Heitmann,

The Gulf Shore Association of Condominiums (GSAC) respectfully requests that you invoke Article II, Section 2-52 of the General Ordinances to convene a special meeting of the City Council as soon as practicable for the purpose of opting-in to Emergency/Executive Order No. 2020-05 of the Board of County Commissioners of Collier County, mandating that, in certain circumstances, individuals wear a face covering in public places.

For the last several months we have been closely monitoring developments related to the spread of COVID-19 in Collier County, and in our immediate area. There are now 8,249 confirmed cases in Collier County, according to today’s FDOH Dashboard. This number is increasing exponentially, and we are particularly concerned that the rate of infection in those being tested is, as of yesterday, 15.57%.

You are familiar with the area in which all of GSAC’s 76 Member Associations are located, which extends from Doctors Pass through Naples Cay, primarily along Gulf Shore Blvd. North. Though the Member Associations are comprised of some 4,500 individual residences, the fact is that, at this time of year, only about 20% of those residences are occupied. The year-round residents are virtually all of an age at which they are categorized as the most vulnerable class. It is therefore especially frightening that, while the number of confirmed cases in our zip code (34103) remained in the low to mid-teens for the first few months of the pandemic, it has now exploded. Since I wrote to Commissioner Taylor just nine days ago, the number of confirmed cases in our zipcode has increased by 48% — at a time when there are far fewer people in residence than there were four months ago.

Many of our year-round residents who are still in Naples are afraid to leave their buildings. Not only does this adversely affect their mental well-being, it has a very detrimental impact on our local economy. It is in everyone’s interest that the City government do what it can to help persuade our residents that it is safe for them to go outside. While opting-in to the County’s emergency order obviously won’t be a panacea, our members overwhelmingly believe that it would be efficacious and we therefore urge that the Council do so.

Respectfully,

Jim Melican

President, GSAC