The Carbondale Emergency Taskforce (CETF) is a newly formed group of volunteers and organizations and public officials with an important role, to provide support and guidance to the Town of Carbondale in key areas of potential impact from the COVID-19 crisis. KDNK’s Lucas Turner spoke to Carbondale Mayor Dan Richardson to learn more about how the task force will operate, its vision, and what it means for the community.
The Town of Carbondale has established the Carbondale Emergency Task Force (CETF), a collective group of volunteer and organizational expertise from across the community that will provide support and guidance to the town in key areas of the potential impact from the COVID-19 global pandemic public health crisis. The CETF will be overseen by the Mayor of Carbondale, Dan Richardson, along with Carbondale Town Manager, Jay Harrington.
The CETF identified eight categories for Lines of Effort for the community which are: health, economy, strategic communications, human capital, finance, technology, advocacy, and crisis response. Within each category, the team will provide leadership to ensure resources such as public and private funding is sought, information is accessible, as well as volunteer resources are coordinated.
Other community entities participating in the task force include Carbondale Chamber and Carbondale Tourism (TCC), Carbondale Arts, Carbondale Police Department, alongside several community volunteers with identified skillsets, along with the newly formed Carbondale Mutual Aid Group.
Additionally, the task force will provide support for the town’s communication efforts to get the community direct and regular updates, through a dedicated webpage providing live public health and safety directions, utility services and business updates.
“Our community of Carbondale, along with the rest of the world, is in an unchartered territory facing many unknowns at this time. This task force brings together key expertise and resources already existing within our town, and from here we can build a structure around the remarkable grassroots efforts which have already been responding quickly to community needs,” said Dan Richardson, Mayor of Carbondale. “The vision for this task force is to understand, support and advocate for the needs of the community during a time of international crisis to ensure the safety, security, and equity for all. We are Carbondale, we are a close-knit community, and we will get through this and emerge stronger than we were before it.”
The community is encouraged to visit the CETF webpage for all public announcements and updates from the task force, including news alerts and direction on public health from the state and county.
