I emailed Stan Helton last night to ask how things were going in the courthouse now that they’ve limited access beyond the guard line. This morning, he sent me the following for posting.
“Clyde – this has been a fluid situation ( sort of like the Mississippi river is fluid ! ). We have had constant meetings and trying to make the right decisions to best protect our citizens. We are having a special called meeting this evening at 4pm ( limited access ) to discuss/declare a State of Emergency in Fannin County for a 2-3 week period. The two main areas that we will focus on are :
- Shelter in place
- Restrictions on tourism activity
Details will be forthcoming and you can watch the meeting Thursday on the County website – we post all of our meetings on the web.
I have to be honest, we don’t want anyone coming up here right now if they can avoid it. An outbreak of Covid-19 will overwhelm our limited medical facilities. When things return to normal – – – – we will welcome them back with open arms !
Stay safe – stay cool ! Stan”
When I asked him if meant to include the second home owners, he replied:
“2nd home people would not be considered tourists in my book – however they have much better facilities to handle this in metro areas than here. I still would ASK that they stay away.”
McCaysville has already declared a state of emergency, closing nearly everything. It doesn’t seem to be on their website. I got it on Nixle. You can sign up for that at the McCaysville City website, and it’s a very good idea right now to get messages from the EMA by text.