March 25, 2020

CONTACT: Lindsey Wiles

Communications Manager

lwiles@mariettaga.gov

770.794.5509

MARIETTA – On Tuesday, March 24th, City Council declared an emergency situation within the City of Marietta and enacted emergency measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in conjunction with Governor Kemp’s Emergency Declaration and Federal Health Guidelines.

The City’s declaration does the following:

• Places restrictions on bars, restaurants, and other on-premise food consumption businesses to allow for food only take away and delivery options until the expiration of the resolution on April 10^th
• Any business involving close physical contact will not be able to operate until the expiration of the resolution – this includes hair salons, beauty shops, barber shops, nail salons, and tattoo parlors
• It limits parks and outdoor facilities’ hours of operation from 6:00 am to 8:00 pm. All playgrounds and organized sports are suspended until April 10^th. All pavilion rentals will be suspended or refunded during this time. All parks facilities will operate in a manner consistent with the CDC recommended 6-foot personal distance requirements.
• Businesses will be required to implement policies to enforce social distancing among its employees, agents, and customers.
• Telecommuting and home offices will be allowed in residential zoning during the time period.
• All zoning and land use matters that require a public hearing will be postponed until after April 10^th.

As part of the Special Called Meeting to make the declaration, City Council also voted to extend the due date for business license renewal payments to May 30^th and to establish six 15-minute parking spots around the Square for curbside pickup in an effort to help small businesses continue to operate while following CDC guidelines relating to social distancing.

Our Economic Development Division has created a COVID-19 information page on its website to serve as a resource to all City businesses during these uncertain times. We will continuously share resources and assistance opportunities as they arise. Because Georgia has officially been listed as a declared state for Coronavirus (COVID-19), Georgia small businesses now qualify to apply for the Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs) through the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). The details on how to apply for those loans and other helpful information is contained on that website.

The City of Marietta will remain open and able to provide government services to all its residents while in the declaration of an emergency situation. We will work to prevent disruption of services, sanitation will continue to run, and City Hall will remain open, with proper health restrictions, to the public while ensuring the health and well-being of our employees, their families and our residents. All City Buildings and floors within those buildings now have dispensers installed with hand sanitizer available to the public and employees and protective shields are being used along with physical distancing. We also have access to sanitizing machines. We plan to use them to sanitize prisoner transport vans, police cars, fire trucks and any other equipment that is in the field and can come in contact with the public. We will also sanitize buildings and other public places as needed. 

We are in constant contact with the Cobb Douglas Public Health Department on a daily basis. Our leadership is participating in regular conference calls with Federal Agencies and the White House. The City has plans in place to respond to staff reductions resulting from any illnesses and we have solutions we can use if needed to ensure continuation of services. We will continue to provide all the important and necessary services that our community depends upon while protecting our employees.

We have a website to keep track of any City events which are canceled or postponed and plan on updating the details daily. Please visit http://www.mariettaga.gov/1357/COVID-19-Information to view additional information and click here to view the Declaration of an Emergency Situation.