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From the President

Greetings Everyone,

My apologies for the tardiness in getting this to you.  We have been monitoring the back and forth battle between the House and Senate on HB 1339.  Nancy explains the situation in her article. I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who wrote, emailed and called the Legislators considering our bill.  With your assistance and Nancy’s tenacity we got a bill we could live with and a very different one than was proposed. 

During almost the entire month of January, Director Jesse James and I shuttled back and forth to Tallahassee where we both had the opportunity to see Nancy operate in her element.  It is clear the respect and recognition she has among Legislators and probably more importantly their staffs. FMO is fortunate to have such a professional.  We also owe a great deal of gratitude to Senator Hooper.  He brought the two sides together as he promised on day one.  Believe me if it were not for his commitment the original bill SB 818 would have gone through.  If you were watching the first committee when Jesse and I testified against the bill it still passed 10 to 0.  We now await the Governor’s signature and the law will become effective July 1^st.

As some of you may have heard there is this virus going around.  Seriously we have taken steps to protect our residents by canceling all in-person meetings and gatherings.  We will work closely with FMHA to take any additional actions necessary.  I know some of you raised question about closing the clubhouse while keeping the Golf Courses and restaurants open.  That will change by the time you read this and we are exploring ways to have access to some clubhouse amenities such as the library and computer terminals.

We must continue to follow CDC and Florida Official’s recommendations.  Any facilities open would be for limited time and limited persons.  Most of our generation has never experienced anything like this but our WWII survivors went through much tougher restrictions and rationing. There will be an end to this and we will look back in amazement on how we got through it.

You may keep up to date on the following websites:

                                https://floridahealthcovid19.gov/

                                https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html

                                https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public

Take care and be safe,

Jerry Durham