With a COVID-19 outbreak being declared in Yorkton, Mayor Bob Maloney is hoping that the people of the city can work together to help stop the spread of the disease. In a recent update, livestreamed on the City of Yorkton website (yorkton.ca), Maloney outlined what the city is doing in its own facilities to keep people safe, including extensive sanitation and mask requirements on things like public transport where social distancing is not an option.
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His primary message is to do what the City of Yorkton itself has been doing as a municipality, and follow the advice of experts.
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鈥淲e can鈥檛 fight with each other about what we think will work and what we think won鈥檛 work. Medical experts, the people in charge, are saying masks work. That鈥檚 all I need to know. So in public places we don鈥檛 have a mandatory mask use rule or a bylaw or anything like that, but I am urging people, when you鈥檙e in public places, please wear a mask. It can protect you, it can protect other people, especially the people who work in the store who see hundreds of people every day. So where we can, let鈥檚 help each other, and not fight each other about what we think might work or won鈥檛 work.鈥�
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City services, including the Gallagher Centre and Kinsmen Arena remain open for the time being. Maloney credits the user groups of both facilities with their efforts to follow guidelines, saying that they have gone all in to ensure the facilities can operate. The city is going to do what it has been doing and follow the lead of the Saskatchewan Health Authority, and if they recommend facilities close again they will close. Right now, the facilities have employed contact tracing for all user groups, extensive sanitation programs, and developed plans to minimize the amount of contact between different users. Maloney credits Fire Chief Trevor Morrissey in developing procedures which allows the city to continue operating facilities, and the minor sports organizations that have been at the table from the beginning to help make programs happen.
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鈥淭here has been a lot of work done behind the scenes by our health officials and by folks at City Hall as well.鈥�
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One thing that is a concern is the upcoming municipal election, which has the potential to get a large number of people in one location. Maloney said that advance polls will be critical this year, as will mail-in ballots, and he encourages as many people as to use both of those as possible to spread out their votes and minimize contact with others. There will be one polling location, in the Gallagher Centre, and Maloney said that they believe the move to one location will make it easier to keep that location sanitary through the election.
