Emergency Declaration approved by Sanford commission following Hurricane Ian
SANFORD, Fla. – On Monday night, the city commission in Sanford decided to accept the city manager’s emergency declaration in advance of Hurricane Ian’s arrival.
In accordance with the declaration, the City Manager of Sanford, Norton Bonaparte, and the Mayor of Sanford, Art Woodruff, will be given the power to “take all actions necessary to address the emergency situation” stemming from Ian.
According to Bonaparte, the formability must be performed once every seven days.
“For instance, if we need to have a curfew or we needed to look at how to, we could restrict actions to help safeguard the public,” Bonaparte said.
In addition, the declaration says that the authorities of Sanford “may waive the procedures and formalities that would normally be needed” for the following activities.
- Taking whatever prudent action is necessary to ensure the health, safety and welfare of the community
- Entering into contracts with vendors
- Employment of permanent and temporary workers
- Renting equipment
- Acquisition and distribution, with or without compensation, of supplies, materials and facilities
- Appropriation and expenditure of public funds
Bonaparte said that if the declaration was not accepted, FEMA might not be able to help the people in the area as much because it would have to focus on helping communities that have been declared to be in a state of disaster first.
Sheena Britton, a member of the City Commission, said that the community has come together to assist one another in the aftermath of the hurricane.
“You hate that it takes something like this to bring people together, but it does work. It shows that we are a team,” Britton said.
Tonya Crowley, a resident of Sanford, lives along Missouri Drive, and many of her neighbors along that stretch are still without power.
“The water stopped rising, which is a beautiful thing, but now we are going to wait for the waters now to actually go down, and then we can determine how much we’ve lost,” Crowley said. “They have to bring their groceries or anything else. Then, you see them coming back with garage because we have the two dumpsters because the garbage trucks can’t get down there. The recycling trucks can’t get down there. Nobody can get through.”
Another vote to approve the Emergency Declaration’s extension will be needed next week, and it’s not certain whether the city will do so.
