Williamson County, Texas

When the call to organize and help vulnerable residents during the COVID-19 pandemic came, the answer was swift. 

As part of the county’s Emergency Operations Center response, Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell and Michael Shoe, director of Emergency Management, tasked Annie Burwell, director of the Mobile Outreach, to lead the Wilco COVID-19 Community Organizations Active in Disaster team.

Shortly after, they reassigned Pamela Ward from the County’s Parks Department to the COAD, and both began their work in earnest.

They also formed an advisory board that included Mel Stauber, Missions Pastor, Celebration Church; Doug James, Community Impact Pastor, Hill Country Bible Church; and Derick Zwerneman, Church Development Manager, Austin Disaster Relief Network.

A COAD is a networking group linking people and organizations needing help with necessities such as food, clothing and shelter to businesses and the faith-based community. It focuses primarily on vulnerable populations such as the elderly, and those in fragile health and/or experiencing homelessness.  

The COAD’s advisory board immediately recognized that many vulnerable, disabled and senior citizens needed hard-to-obtain personal protective equipment likes face masks, gloves and cleaning supplies. 

Please log onto this link to read the report dated May 19, 2020 https://agenda.wilco.org/docs/2020/COM/20200519_1531/24180_2020_Williamson_County_Valuation_Update_5.19.20.pdf

For additional information on property taxes, please visit https://www.wcad.org/

Isolation

by Terry Cook

One day rolls into the next

No jolt, no transition, it just does.

Left alone am I.

In silence I sit, read, sigh.

I miss my family.

I miss the touch of a friend.

The warm hug that told me ‘we are well’.

The kiss on the cheek,

The humorous glint in their eye, now too distanced to see.

The jokes we told now muffled behind the mask.

Laughter, ahh, laughter that warmed the soul.

Hands clasped, we strolled together each day, now too distanced to be.

That which has happened, not our doing.

But it neither our undoing.

Does God wish us to be malcontents or filled with love?

Do we long for the past or relish the known and unknown of the future?

We still have each other; friendship does not whither under the winds of isolation.

But is patient, full of anticipation of its coming resumption.

Commissioner Cook urges everyone to stay home as much as possible. Lifted quarantines around the world have resulted in spikes in the numbers of coronavirus cases, sometimes with dramatic increases!

Williamson County's Stay Home Stay Safe order will expire at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, April 30. Starting May 1, Williamson County businesses will follow Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s executive orders issued April 27, 2020, which allow businesses to reopen in phases, with an effort toward minimiznig the spread of COVID-19.  

No date is set for reopening Wilco County Offices. Facemasks, gloves and 20-second handwashing are still the best we can do if we go out to protect ourselves and our loved ones. 

To view what types of businesses can open and with what restrictions, please read Texans Helping Texans: The Governor's Report to Open Texas. This report explains Phase I by outlining the new protocols, guidance, and recommendations. 

A copy of the report and executive orders can be found on the county’s website at www.wilco.org.