Bethlehem city council’s March 17 meeting had to skip its agenda when a lack of a quorum made it impossible to conduct business or vote on agenda items.

Four of the seven Bethlehem city council members skipped the Tuesday night meeting, leaving Council President Adam Waldron, Councilmen Michael Colon and William Reynolds the only audience as Bethlehem Health Department Kristen Wenrich and Bethlehem Emergency Management Director Robert Novatnack and Mayor Robert Donchez explained steps being taken to meet the emergency created by the corona virus.

Of the four missing council members at the meeting, one was working, one had emergency surgery, and one had a headache and decided to skip the meeting out of sense of caution.

Councilwoman Olga Negron, in an interview, said she had been traveling frequently and felt that she should stay away from the meeting to reduce the chances of infecting others, especially “while sitting shoulder to shoulder in a council meeting.”

Instead of conducting normal business as outlined in the agenda, Waldron turned the meeting over to Mayor Bob Donchez and his staff for an update on the corona virus crisis.

“We’ve been meeting daily,” said Donchez. He invited the public to go the city’s website for updates on how the city’s various departments are handling the crisis.

“It’s a very fluid situation, sometimes changing hourly or daily,” he said.

One option of many on the table is to extend deadlines for any tax or bill payments due the city. “We will make a decision on that within the next week or so,” said Donchez before he turn ed to Bethlehem Health Department Director Kristen Wenrich, who also briefed the three council members present.

“We are really fortunate here in the Leihigh Valley,” said Wenrich, “to have such a great emergency preparedness infrastructure.

“We have plans in place and we regularly drill those plans,” said Wenrich. She said that since the beginning of this outbreak, the Health Department has been monitoring travelers coming into Bethlehem from China since mid-January.

She said the numbers are changing daily, so those offered were only good as of March 17. She said the Health Department is monitoring one case in Northampton County and one in Lehigh County.

Wenrich said, “They are opening up mass testing facilities in Montgomery County and in the Philadelphia area. She said there is a three to four-day delay between corona virus testing in a commercial lab and results; she said she hopes to see that time shortened.

She emphasized that the test should be reserved for cases of known exposure or for health care workers or emergency care workers, or by doctors to help diagnose patients.

Robert Novatnack, Bethlehem’s Emergency Management Director, spoke to the councilmembers present, saying he was planning to declare a state of disaster. “The counties [Northampton and Lehigh] have already done it,” said Novatnack. “It’s a document we are working on with [city council] President Waldron and the mayor.

“That means we will activate our emergency operations center downstairs,” said Novatnack. “There will be restricted access. It’s a level three ,with level four being a normal day.”

He said they are responding to every call just as they always do. He said once a responding team gets to the location, they are sending in one responder to evaluate the situation in light of the potential for the medical issue.

Novatnack said a city may be able to recoup funds down the road from FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency]. “That’s one of the reasons we want to declare a state of disaster,” he said.

Novatnack assured the council that the various city departments were prepared for the pandemic.

Waldron, in response, said everyone should listened to the experts, and follow best practices to help “flatten the curve” [the spike in corona virus cases]. He observed that if they do succeed in keeping the number of cases low, there will be an inevitable criticism that the “government over reacted.”

Novatnack added that hording of bottled water is not necessary since Bethlehem has a robust tap water supply system.

He assured the council that a priority is that government continue to function. “We’re three deep in everything,” he said, referring to the depth of the chain of command for all the functions of city government.

Councilman William Reynolds offered a general “thank you” to Novatnack and the community of emergency responders. “We’re in an unprecedented situation and you are implementing plans you never thought or were hoping would never have to be put in place.”