July 10, 2020

Samantha Mango:
Hi, I’m Samantha Mango and welcome to “Sullivan 180 Presents… Take Five!”. My guest today is John Liddle, Deputy County Manager at Sullivan County Government. Welcome John. Thanks for being here.

John Liddle:
Thanks for having me on!

Samantha Mango:
How are you?

John Liddle:
I’m good. And I’m enjoying the summer days more or less. Yeah, it’s good. A lot of things going on with County government, not all of them are good.

Samantha Mango:
You want to take a moment and introduce yourself, your job title and a little bit about how your role has changed throughout the pandemic?

John Liddle:
Yes, definitely. So I am the Deputy County Manager. Starting next week, I’m also going to be the Commissioner of Social Services. So it’s kind of a big change in focus and mindset, but by the same token, it’s actually a really good fit for me. And I think a win win for the County right now. But through the pandemic, I was the Incident Commander for the COVID-19 Response and I’m really proud of what our team has accomplished over the course of that. And although there’s certainly warning signs around the country right now, we’re certainly good shape here in New York and in Sullivan County. So really proud of all the work that especially our public health folks have done.

Samantha Mango:
What are some new initiatives that the county is working on in response to the pandemic?

John Liddle:
There’s so many things. I mean, it’s, it’s really has changed the way we do business. And I think the thing that I’m most proud for our team is the Emergency Community Assistance Center, which has actually wound down as of last week. They are still taking the phone call, so if folks have the number, they can still call it the 845-807-0925 , we’re still helping folks out. We’re helping folks out mostly by continuing to coordinate getting food from Hudson Valley food bank, from the Salvation Army and other, bigger distributors out to the smaller food pantries around the County to make sure that they stay stocked, because we know that, even though our numbers are looking a lot better, there’s still a lot of folks that are struggling and with the economy being the way it is right now, just starting to wake up. So we’re still going to take care of folks, but, the Emergency Community Assistance Center worked really hard through all this. I helped a lot of people: got them food, got the medicine, got them PPE when they needed it. So that was really great. And then I think the other big thing is the interactive dashboard that we were able to build. We did that all in house, and that’s no small feat for a County of this size to be able to put together a GIS dashboard with detailed information down to the zip code of where the cases are, where we’re at, as far as quarantine and active cases. Those numbers are being tracked and updated on a daily basis. I dare say even better than they’re doing in Albany with it! So I’m really proud of our IT team, and our public health team, public safety…that was really a whole team effort to get all that data together, and get it out to people so that they can make good decisions on how to keep themselves safe.

Samantha Mango:
As we reopen. What should County residents expect Sullivan County to look like in the next couple of weeks throughout the course of the summer into fall?

John Liddle:
The big thing we’re emphasizing with everybody is that the “wearing of masks, hand hygiene, and social distancing”. The numbers are where they are right now, not because the threat of COVID is over, it’s because all those things that we’ve been doing for the last several months are working, and we need to keep at them. We’ll be watching closelywhat the state government’s decisions are with regard to phase four. They have backed away from reopening the malls and gyms and movie theaters, which is tough, but it’s probably also the right call given what we’re seeing, what else is going on around the country. So playing it safe there is a good thing by in large. I do think there’s opportunities for folks that want to work out: they can, like me, work out in yoga studios, things like that, that take their business outside, and there’s ways to run it safely outside. It’s tough to do a gym in a confined space right now: everybody’s sharing the equipment, but hopefully with a little bit of creativity and support from the state, we can get there from here.

Samantha Mango:
How can people stay in touch and get up to date news coming from the County?

John Liddle:
So our social media is very active. Dan, who is the County’s Director of Communications. Dan does a wonderful job keeping everything up to date. He was essential to the interactive dashboard in getting that going. The Town Halls that we run on Facebook: we’ve been running those on Monday and Thursdays. I think they do a pretty good job. Aside from that, you know, we have a great partnership with Radio Bold and JFF. So just keeping in tune on the airwaves is also a good way to get good solid information.

Samantha Mango:
Is there anything else you’d like to share?

John Liddle:
Well, looking forward, I’m going to be the Commissioner for Social Services, so I’m really looking forward to getting those folks better connected with the community, and working on our County wide health objectives. We upticked one point with Robert Wood Johnson this year. I’m hoping that we can really do a lot more with that. I’m especially excited about working with Bob Defour and the school districts on getting a better connection between the services that we provide in County government and the services that the school districts are providing, and really kind of get those things jelling together and work in better. Becasue that to me is so important: taking care of kids and hopefully in a lot of cases, kids setting good examples for their parents. Hopefully, it will help get us going, and really, jump us from, 60 to 50 to 40 and beyond. So, I’m excited about the future! We definitely have a tough road ahead, till we get through COVID-19, but we’re in a great place here before this epidemic started and, there’s a lot of opportunity Sullivan County now.

Samantha Mango:
Thanks so much for being here. I appreciate your time.

John Liddle:
Yeah. Glad you’re doing this, and it’s good to hear from everybody else that’s been on!