Message From Brian Smith, President, LLCC Board of Directors – Posted 4/24/2020 @ 4:45pm
I note on local social media the beginnings of a drumbeat similar to what we are seeing in a few other locations around the state and country—“Re-open now!” as if the COVID19 threat isn’t real or is just a minor nuisance. I hope that all LLCC members are taking to heart Governor Inslee’s reminder that we all have a personal responsibility to all members in our community to reduce the spread of COVID19 and the threat to our neighbors who may in one or more of the vulnerable categories due to age, physical condition, etc.
The virus doesn’t belong to any political party. It doesn’t boat, fish, or play golf. COVID19 just wants to do one thing—survive. To do so, it wants to reproduce and spread by making its host sick enough to cough and sneeze, even it means killing its current host.
Complying with the Stay Home Stay Healthy order isn’t fun. Re-opening will be good, if done safely, protecting the health of the community. As Governor Inslee said recently, re-opening won’t be like flipping a switch, but more like slowly turning up a dial.
In his daily COVID19 briefing several days ago, New York Governor Cuomo referred to a quote from Edward Gibbon’s Fall of the Roman Empire about the fall of Athens:
“…when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.”
By acting responsibly, Mason County appears to have very few known cases of COVID19, but that could change if we relax.
Note that we haven’t “closed the lakes” to members, just the parks for activities like staying there to picnic or play on the equipment. We recognize that the tables, play equipment and bathrooms are possible sources of contact contamination, and that use of the parks increases the likelihood of social distancing guidelines being violated. Fishing is not currently allowed, because the State fishing season wasn’t scheduled to begin until April 25 and the opening has been postponed to at least May 4 if not extended to an even later date. Our Golf Course is currently closed for play under the Governor’s order, although we allow walking the paths with social distancing. We are all trying responsibly to reduce the threat to our community’s health.
I applaud Our Community Association Manager Roger Milliman and his key staff for their foresight to begin preparing for that slow dialup of our operations. I know we all appreciate the work they are doing in the meantime keeping up maintenance on our facilities, running our back-office operations and providing the community with some curbside dining variety.
We need to take our prompts from the State and Federal re-opening guidance which is based on observed, quantified infection trends, the availability of testing options (for both current and past infections of COVID19) and the ability to contact trace. It’s those last two factors, testing and tracing, that seem to be the real delays to re-opening.
In the meantime, Stay Home, Stay Healthy and Stay Safe for your well-being, and that of your friends and neighbors in the Lake Limerick Community. We can get through this together.
Brian Smith
President
Lake Limerick Country Club Homeowners Association
