By Daniel Schaefer

As I walked out of Babylon Town Hall on the afternoon of Friday, March 13, 2020, little did I know I wouldn’t be back for a year. The COVID-19 pandemic was here.

The Beginning
For those working in town government communications, the challenge was threefold at the beginning of the outbreak on Long Island: inform the public about the virus, keep as many services uninterrupted as possible and manage internal communications for the town’s workforce of nearly 500 employees.

The town’s communications team – myself and two others – scrambled to update the town’s web presence, respond to media inquiries about the town’s functionality, create office voicemail scripts and send town-wide emails to employees on procedures.

Open lines of communication between Town Supervisor Rich Schaffer, Deputy Supervisor Tony Martinez, the rest of the Town Board and my team were critical in the beginning of the virus outbreak to conduct efficient external and internal outreach.

More than Outreach
As the town’s various departments became available remotely over the following days and weeks, it still felt like something was missing. Each day, county health officials would provide grim reports – thousands sick, hundreds hospitalized and dozens dying at the height of the spread. Then it hit me – we needed to address the human element of the suffering that so many were going through.

I decided to highlight those who continued to serve our community despite the danger they faced. You know who I’m talking about – nurses, doctors, first responders, essential workers and volunteers. We set up an online form for residents to submit stories of the work they or their loved ones were doing. I read many heartfelt accounts over the following months: parents proud of their children who just became nurses, children who worried about their parents going to work despite their pre-existing conditions, so-on and so-forth. One that sticks out was the story of a local nurse who was on her way back to the hospital for another grueling shift when she was killed in a car accident.

Throughout the spring and summer of 2020, I shared these stories to the town’s Facebook page twice a day. Each post received thousands of likes and hundreds of comments that simply said “thank you.” It was this sense of community – though expressed remotely – that made it clear we’d get through this.

New Challenges
In the last year, we’ve moved all public meetings to virtual channels and held as many special events via Facebook Live as possible. We also coordinated an unprecedented effort between all 13 Long Island townships to present a unified plan to our residents for summer 2020.

We continue to proactively inform the public about key issues related to the virus, most recently vaccinations. Though we have no control over vaccines at the town level, its important all of our staff is provided with information to assist all residents who come to us for help.

Those working in local government communications have needed to act swiftly, creatively and collaboratively to help guide Long Island through the tumultuous year we have all endured. A lot has been asked of the public – adhering to face covering/social distancing guidelines, encouraging those not feeling well to be tested and eventually vaccinated – and communications professionals continue to lead the way.