Today, March 13, both the State of Texas and Tarrant County issued a state of disaster due to a public health emergency because of concerns over the coronavirus pandemic. By issuing an emergency declaration, the state and county can authorize resources quickly and reassign needed resources to areas that need it most. While the State of Texas did not offer recommendations on events and gatherings, Tarrant County did. Tarrant County is recommending that events over 250 people are canceled and strongly recommend organizers of events of any size where people are in close contact with each other, be canceled or postponed. Multiple school districts are also taking this opportunity to extend spring break for their students, in an effort to decrease additional cases. Burleson ISD also released today that they would be extending their spring break until April 5 (BISD’s spring break begins March 14). At this time, Joshua ISD, has made no changes to its current class schedule and will be in Spring Break starting, March 14-22. In alignment with the state, county and local school districts, the City of Burleson will be canceling the Spring Break Camp that was scheduled for March 16 – March 20 at the Burleson Recreation Center. We understand the inconvenience this is going to cause for many families in our community and we sincerely apologize for that. This decision was not made lightly, but we feel it is in the public’s safety to discontinue as many large gatherings as we can. The Burleson City Council will be hosting a special meeting tomorrow, Saturday, March 14, at 9 a.m. at Burleson City Hall, 141 W Renfro, to discuss any other closures or postponements the city may enact over the next few weeks. We appreciate everyone’s patience as we work through this situation together. Our highest priority is to protect our residents. |