On behalf of County Council and our Administrative offices, I want to send out a brief messageto all residents of Edgefield County.

County government is considered an essential service. It has been exempted from the Governors Executive Order. Legally, County Council is required to meet once a month. It is critically important for continuity of government purposes. You can rest assured that those who represent you, as well as staff, will practice social distancing.

County Council’s April 7, 2020 meeting will be live-streamed, ensuring it is available for those who generally attend, or those who have been watching online, and those who for the first time might choose to watch, from home or where they can get access to internet. Due to COVID—l9 we would encourage this type of participation, rather than attending the meeting in person.

For now. due to CT OVID-19. all other monthly public commissions / meetings. will be postponed until May. Specifically the Land Management Ordinance Meetings, the Capital Project Sales Tax Meetings and the Planning Commission.

With Regards to the April 7, 2020 County Council meeting, you may go to this website to see our agenda: https://edgefieldcounty.sc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Agenda-04072020.pdf. It is highly likely a couple of these items will be tabled until the May, 2020 meeting, including the item under “Public Hearing.”

The seats in the public area of our County Council Building will be arranged to accommodate social distancing, drastically reducing the number of those who may participate in person. While we don’t want to discourage public participation we would encourage anyone who wants to make comments to submit them in writing to jgilley@edgefieldcounty.sc.gov and scooper@edgefieldcounty.sc.gov, rather than attending in person.

If you choose to do that, we will read them into the recorded record. We will allow the sameamount of time for reading statements, as we do for public statements, and we will read them in the order we receive them. If you choose to submit comments, we need you to state the following in the e-mail statement:

1. Which section of Public Comments you are writing about:

1. Items on the Agenda — Beginning of the Meeting
2. Items not on the Agenda — End of the Meeting

2. Your first and last name

3. Your phone number

4. Your address

5. Your e-mail address

6. The Topic

If you do choose to attend the meeting, please note that once the limited seats due to social distancing are filled, no additional individuals will be allowed to participate.

You can rest assured that those who serve you within County Government are daily connected with those who are navigating the COVID-19 spread, on both state and federal levels. As you can imagine, there are multiple issues which are fluid, not only changing daily, but sometimes hourly. Throughout, Edgefield County is executing best practices. We ask that everyone follow the guidelines issued by Center for Disease Control (CDC), Ifyou do choose to attend the meeting, please note that once the limited seats due to social distancing are filled, no additional individuals will be allowed to participate.

You can rest assured that those who serve you within County Government are daily connected with those who are navigating the COVID-19 spread, on both state and federal levels. As you can imagine, there are multiple issues which are fluid, not only changing daily, but sometimes hourly. Throughout, Edgefield County is executing best practices.

We ask that everyone follow the guidelines issued by Center for Disease Control (CDC), South Carolina Governor McMaster and the Department of Health and Environmental Controls (DHEC), as they relate to social distancing, not participating in large group functions, and only engaging in essential activities. For complete information, please review the following two websites: The CDC – https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html and SC DHEC – https://www.scdhec.gov/infectious-diseases/viruses/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19 On March 17th, Edgefield County posted information on all the entrances to our public facilities,as well as our website. You can view that notification here: https://edgefieldcounty.sc.gov/2020/03/17/covid-19-edgefield-county-updates/.  I would encourage you to check our website daily, in the event there is new local information to share. You are also encouraged to follow us on our multiple Social Media pages.

In closing, our entire community, state and nation are working through uncharted territory. In addition to following the instructions provided by CDC, DHEC and the Governor, I would ask each of our citizens to check on your neighbors, eat nutritious food, sleep well and spend some time in prayer. I would ask you spend time praying for those who represent you, as well as the other 500,000 elected representatives in in our country. The hotspots for COVID-19 are not the same in every state and every community, and each of these individuals will need to make decisions they haven’t thought about until recently! I also ask you demonstrate patience for all — stress levels are high, in every industry, and every neighborhood.

May God bless you, and may God Bless Edgefield County!

Scott Cooper

Chairman, Edgefield County Council.