Marin County COVID-19 Status Update
Dr. Matt Willis updated the Marin County Board of Supervisors about the current COVID-19 response. His update provided greater detail about surges in cases locally and nationwide, rationale for adopting the state’s Regional Stay Home Order, an overview of new local and state restrictions, new details on COVID-19 vaccine efforts in Marin County, and more.
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What is allowed to operate under the new Regional Stay Home Order?
As of, December 8 at 12pm, the State of California’s Regional Stay Home Order is in effect for Marin County. Under the Stay Home order, all gatherings with members of other households are prohibited, except as expressly permitted in the State’s Regional Stay Home order. The intent of the order is to reduce gatherings and activity in our communities to stop the spread of COVID-19. The Regional Stay Home Order asks all individuals to stay home or at their place of residence as much as possible, except to complete only the most essential tasks, like go to the doctor, buy groceries, take your child to school, go on a hike, or worship outdoors.
The Regional Stay Home Order affects business operations in several industries. Here is an overview of businesses that must close, modify operations or can continue under the order. For further clarification, please visit the State of California’s Regional Stay Home Order webpage.
Arts & Entertainment
- Allowed to operate, with restrictions: Industries, studios, and other related establishments such as establishments that provide content for professional broadcast can operate without live audiences.
- Must close, both indoor and outdoor operations: Museums, movie theaters, family entertainment centers, cardrooms.
Construction:
- Allowed to operate, with restrictions: All construction sites and construction business office operations.
Faith Services & Cultural Ceremonies:
- Places of worship, cultural ceremonies and political expression is allowed in outdoor environments only.
General Office Space:
- All office space should allow for remote-only operations except for critical infrastructure sectors where remote working is not possible.
Gyms & Fitness Studios:
- Allowed to operate, with restrictions: Outdoor gyms, fitness studios, and related classes (e.g., dance, yoga, etc).
- Must close: All indoor gym and fitness studio operations
Hotels, Motels & Hospitality
- Short term lodging facilities are allowed to operate for COVID-19 mitigation and containment measures, treatment measures, provide accommodation for essential workers, or providing housing solutions, including measures to protect homeless populations.
- Hotels and lodging cannot accept or honor out-of-state reservations for non-essential travel, unless the reservation is for at least the minimum time period required for quarantine and the persons identified in the reservation will quarantine in the hotel or lodging entity until after that time period has expired.
Outdoor Recreation
- Allowed to operate, with restrictions: Outdoor recreational facilities and sites may operate for the purpose of facilitating physically distanced personal health and wellness through outdoor exercise, without any food, drink or alcohol sales. Outdoor recreation facilities include parks, skate parks, sports courts (e.g., basketball, tennis), playgrounds and related facilities.
- Must close: Overnight stays at campgrounds will not be permitted.
Personal Care & Hair Services
- Allowed to operate, with restrictions: Medically prescribed massage (e.g., with referral from physician or physical therapist)
- Must close, both indoor and outdoor operations: Hair Salons, Barbershops, Nail Salons, Tattoo parlors, piercing shops, tanning salons and related businesses.
Restaurants, Wineries, Bars
- Allowed to operate, with restrictions: Restaurants: Take-out and Delivery only
- Must close, both indoor and outdoor operations: Wineries, bars, breweries and distilleries (does not serve food) must close.
Retail & Malls
- Allow indoor operation at 20% capacity with entrance metering and no eating or drinking in the stores. Additionally, special hours should be instituted for seniors and others with chronic conditions or compromised immune systems. Food courts and common areas should close.
Libraries:
- Libraries follow retail guidelines: indoor operations may continue at 20% capacity with entrance metering and no eating or drinking in the branch locations.
School Services
- Allowed to remain open and provide on-site classroom-based instruction to students.
Childcare & Youth Programs
- Childcare programs are permitted continue.
- Youth programs are permitted to continue
- Youth sports are restricted to outdoor activities only limited to individual conditioning and training activities where physical distancing and mask wearing can be enforced.
Still have questions? Review the County's Frequently Asked Questions page developed from top questions received by our call center.
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Town Hall remains open during the Stay Home Order
Town Hall remains open during the Stay Home Order. However, the Town Hall and Police Lobby will be closed during the holiday furlough from December 24th to January 4th. Town Hall will reopen on January 4th. Town Hall will offer limited services during this time. Please check the Town website for more details. Police will continue to provide 24/7 services to the community during the holiday furlough.
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Outdoor Seating Area in the Mono Parking Lot Update
Due to the new County Health Order, effective December 8th, the lower portion of the Mono Parking lot will no longer be closed for outdoor public seating. We will revisit the closure of the lot for public uses when the County Health Order is modified.
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New Officer Sworn into the Fairfax Police Department |
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Please join us in congratulating our newest police officer, Rashad Ali. Officer Ali started with us in 2015 as a part-time Cadet. He was promoted to a part-time Public Services Technician and later into a full-time Dispatcher. He attended the Napa Valley Police Academy in early 2020 and is now a full-time Police Officer with Fairfax Police. He is also fluent in Pungabi and Hindi languages. Officer Ali fills one of the two vacancies in the department. |
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Fairfax Police Department Offers Free Gun Locks
The Fairfax Police Department offers free gun locks to its residents. We will also collect any unwanted weapons from any Fairfax resident. Simply call our office and we will come to your residence to safely collect the firearm. Periodically we partner with the Marin County District Attorney’s office in a “gun buyback program” where firearms can be turned in to a collection site and the owner is paid cash for the weapon (often around $100 per weapon).
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Reminder to Get a Tree Permit
Please remember that a Tree Permit is required for the removal OR significant trimming of any tree, pursuant to Town Code Chapter 8.36 ‘Trees.’
If you have any questions, please call Susan Waters at (415) 453-1584 or via email at swaters@townoffairfax.org.
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Opening Celebration for Victory Village
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
12:30pm - 1:15pm PST
Resources for Community Development (RCD) invites you to celebrate the opening of Victory Village, a new affordable housing community providing new rental homes for 54 low-income seniors in Fairfax, CA.
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Effective Tuesday, December 8th, indoor classes in the Pavilion are canceled due to the County’s new health order, which is effective thru January 4th. Please check with your instructor or the Town website in January for more information on when classes will resume.
Flying Dutchman Gymnastics
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Outdoor Yoga
with Veronica Geretz, M.A., E-RYT500
Mondays from 4-5pm
We have moved back onto Contratii Field
Maximum of 15 participants
FREE
We have moved this program outdoors again due to the December 8th health orders. Please note the new, earlier time, so that we can practice in daylight.
The class will be geared toward yoga students with a Beginner to Intermediate yoga practice. Please bring your own yoga mat, two yoga blocks and a yoga strap. If you do not have any of those props and are unable to procure them for any reason, please reach out to Veronica at geretzvj@gmail.com and she will work with you to find what you need at no cost.
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Upcoming Meetings & Events |
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Fairfax Volunteers Holiday Wreath Making (online)
December 13th - 2pm
Parks & Recreation Committee Meeting
December 14th - 7pm
Climate Action Committee Meeting
December 15th - 7pm
Town Council Special Meeting
December 16th - 6:30pm
Planning Commission Meeting
December 17th - 7pm
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Fairfax Food Pantry
Saturday mornings from 8-10am
Fairfax Community Church
2398 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Fairfax.
The Fairfax Food Pantry continues to be open. Drive through or walk up service is available. In addition to our regular bagged groceries, folks will be receiving 15lb produce boxes as part of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP).
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The Wonderfully Wild Marin Pop Ups
Saturday December 5th & 12th, from 1-6
Outdoor dining area of Mas Masa
31 Bolinas Road, Fairfax
Even more treasures than last week on display - There will be gorgeous photos for sale by the artists of WonderfullyWildMarin.Com (WWM) fundraise and the WWM 2021 calendars,
Donated music by Teja Gerkin
Artists in Residence, Stephanie Mohan's "Faces of Fairfax" book, kinetic sculpture by Susan Pascal Beran, and more!
The exhibit is fully ventilated out of doors mask and social distancing protocols will be followed.
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Fairfax Open Space Committee Has Openings
Do you care about the open space and green areas in and around Fairfax? Are you concerned about losing those open space areas to development? If so, please consider becoming a member of the Fairfax Open Space Committee (FOSC), which advises the Town on matters affecting open space lands and participates as an advisory body to review planning and development matters. FOSC currently has two member openings.
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Town of Fairfax COVID-19 Resources
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Town of Fairfax sitio web se puede traducir al español
El sitio web se puede traducir al español usando el ícono del globo que se encuentra en la barra verde de cada página.
Our website can now be translated into Spanish (and other languages) using the globe icon found on the green bar at the top of each page.
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Email for Reporting Shelter-in-Place (SIP) Violations
The Town has created an on-line process for reporting SIP violations by businesses.
In the email, we ask that you include the business name, address, and as much detail as possible regarding the perceived health order violation. Town staff will follow-up with the businesses regarding the violations. Our goal is to gain compliance by informing and educating businesses of the need to follow shelter-in-place (SIP) orders. All businesses will be given a grace period to comply before additional follow-up actions are taken by staff.
The updated status of businesses and industries reopenings in Marin County can be found at MarinRecovers.com.
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Next week's newsletter will be a special Holiday Edition featuring ways to shop local and celebrate the holidays close to home. |
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