Northport Officials Give Updates, Urge Caution Ahead Of Holidays

NORTHPORT, AL. — City of Northport officials are urging the public to remain vigilant heading into the holidays as new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations show a disturbing rise following Thanksgiving. Amid the surge, no city services have seen major impacts and Northport Mayor Bobby Herndon said the city's facilities will remain open as officials continue to monitor the situation.

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"We just got through with Thanksgiving and as you’ve noticed, there’s been a great spike in cases since then and that’s going to be directly related to friends and family getting together and not being as cautious as they should be or as aware as they should be," Herndon said, before cautioning residents to limit their holiday gatherings and wear masks when coming into contact with those outside of their homes. "Every person ultimately is responsible for their own health, their own well-being, and in order to do that you have to take charge of yourself. You’ve got to take charge and set your own parameters."

Patch reported Monday that the city of Northport currently has 20-25 employees out due to COVID-19 protocols, 15 of whom are employees of the city's fire department.

Herndon said at present the city's day-to-day operations have not been impacted apart from the Northport Police Department suspending its fingerprint services and told the public to be mindful when calling 911 during this time, so as to avoid unnecessary contact for first responders while also cutting down on any potential strain felt by the different departments.

"If you’re going to be having to call 911 for any reason, just make sure it's a real reason," he said. "We don’t want to get overworked, overbooked, overstretched out on things that really don’t need 911 emergency services."

He also said Northport City Hall remains open at this time, but visitation will be prohibited in the different offices in the building. This comes a day after the city of Tuscaloosa opted to close all of its buildings and event spaces to the public in an effort to protect a workforce ravaged by the latest spike in new cases.

In discussing the police department's decision to suspend fingerprinting services, Herndon pointed out that NPD is one of the few agencies left that offer fingerprinting to doctors, nurses and attorneys for things like background checks.

"We’re one of the last agencies to do that and we've been helping out other communities, which I'm very thankful to NPD for," he said. "But it comes to a point know where we have to take care of our own."

Northport Police Chief Gerald Burton spoke during Tuesday's update, saying the department currently has only one officer out on leave due to COVID-19 protocols and the fingerprinting service is the only offering to be suspended at the moment.

"Other than that, all of our officers are doing fine and all city services, police department services are in effect," he said. "We have been receiving about 1,800 calls a month, that's a little down from previous years, but it's great for us that calls are down and we’re ready to respond."

District 1 Councilwoman Christy Bobo also reminded the public to follow safety guidelines and said the city offers different resources on its website to educate the public moving forward.

Patch also reported this week that the city has launched a new website, ChooseNorthport.com, which is geared toward connecting business owners with the community during this time. The goal of this website will be to provide a free tool to area business owners and residents alike to help navigate the ever-changing economic landscape of a pandemic.

As fear persist of further shutdowns at the local level due to the drastic rise in new coronavirus cases, Bobo underscored the importance of taking the threat seriously.

"I know Northport probably didn’t take it as severely as some of our sister cities," she said. "But it's time to be more prepared on the front end so we don’t have to do that in the future."

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