Southern Indiana Business July-August 2020 | Page 17

TREVA HODGES
Submitted photo
Charlestown Mayor Treva Hodges became the city’s first female mayor when she was
elected in November 2019, defeating 16-year incumbent Bob Hall. It wasn’t long into her
first term that the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and the city had to act quickly to address issues
as they arose.
Early in the pandemic, the city set up an outreach program to check on community members
and distribute groceries. Recently, the city has used money from the federal CARES
Act to provide in-home hot meal delivery for elderly and high-risk residents so they can
continue staying at home.
What has it been like leading the City of Charlestown amid the COVID-
19 pandemic, and how are you navigating the city through times of
change?
“It’s certainly been a challenge and an adventure. I think that one of the things that
makes Charlestown so great to manage something like this is we have a really strong community
support vibe. Our community really knows how to rally together, and so there’s
no shortage of volunteers, there’s no shortage of people who are willing to step up and
step into places where they are needed. All we really had to do was put the organization in
place.
“Right off the bat, we started an assistance outreach program that allows some of our
higher risk members — the elderly, those with underlying health conditions or anyone who
was diagnosed with COVID-19 who had to go in quarantine, anybody who needed to stay
isolated — we immediately created a signup for them, and put them essentially in a database
that has allowed our staff to call and check on them every day and make sure they had
what they needed.”
July / August 2020
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