HARLINGEN — City officials announced Tuesday that decisions to stage board meetings will be made on a case-by-case basis to limit potential exposure to the coronavirus.
The Parks and Recreation Department board was scheduled to meet Tuesday in the cramped conference room at the Lon C. Hill Building on Tyler Avenue but was canceled.
An agenda item on city sports leagues would have drawn a big crowd to the meeting, said Irma Garza, the city’s public relations officer, and officials decided it would be too risky.
“We do want to follow the CDC and the Health Department advisories and do our part,” Garza said. “It’s not here right now, thank goodness, but we’re not living under a rock and the possibility is great. It could and very well may happen sooner than we want. We want to make sure we are not helping it happen here.”
Garza said whether a city board meeting will proceed will be decided on a case-by-case basis.
“We’re trying to limit the number of people at these meetings,” she said. “There was something on the (parks and rec) agenda that might bring in a lot of people and this might not be a time to have a meeting where a lot of people would come. So they decided to cancel for now.”
Garza said the city’s website, www.myharlingen.us, will be updated practically hourly with new information about not just whether board meetings will be held but other important municipal information as well. If residents have questions, or don’t have access to a computer, she said to call her office at 956-216-5030.
“Even our city commission meetings, we’re going to curtail,” she said. “Directors have been asked, if you don’t have an item on the agenda, you don’t need to be here.”
Garza said there is a new push to livestream city meetings online, and she said staff is working on that “very, very hard.”
Livestreams of city meetings and events will be announced on the myharlingen.us website.
