Here is what is what you need to know for Friday going into the weekend.

Support Local
There are several ways you can continue to support local businesses and restaurants – while still social distancing. Here’s how:

• Grab pick-up from a local restaurant for dinner tonight (and then go home). See the full list at hattiesburgms.com/coronavirus/biz.
  • Several restaurants are also taking part in a Drive-Thru Food Hall hosted by Lake Terrace Convention Center from 4 p.m. – 7 p.m. Check out http://popupeatshattiesburg.com/ to order ahead or for more details.
• Do you have a favorite barista, bartender or service industry wait staffer? Thanks to the coordination of Hattiesburg Jaycees, a virtual tip jar list is being maintained at bit.ly/hburgtipjar. If you pour yourself a glass of water, tea or your favorite beverage tonight – consider also passing along a tip to your favorite service industry staffer.
• Consider grabbing a shirt from hattiesburgstrong.com. This effort, coordinated by Roy Windham with The Porter and Jason Spiers at JMH Graphics, will go to sustainably supporting our service industry employees who have been affected by COVID-19.

Mask Donation Drive

More than 400 masks and 2,000 gloves were collected during today’s setup for the Hattiesburg Mask Drive-Thru & Drop-Off. These will be shared with Hattiesburg’s health care partners, first responders and essential services.

The last day of collection will be Saturday, March 28 from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. All unused masks are welcome.

Hattiesburg Arts Council smART Space Virtual Classes

If you need a moment to stretch and wiggle about with your littles while at home, we highly recommend visiting the Hattiesburg Parks & Recreation Facebook Page to see this morning’s videos.

Abigail Lenz Allen will be back at the Community Arts Center on Monday/Wednesday/Friday for additional classes during this time. 9 a.m. for stretch and movement; 9:30 a.m. for art. If you are building a curriculum-based schedule for distance learning at home, this is a great opportunity to include movement and art into the schedule.

Thanks to Hattiesburg Arts Council, HAC Smart Space, Forrest County, and Mississippi Arts Commission and the Pinebelt Foundation‘s Ann Morris Memorial Fund for helping make the virtual classes possible.

Public Meetings
While we continue to evolve and adapt for public meetings, below is information regarding Community Development and a previously-scheduled public meeting for Monday, March 30, 2020.

The City of Hattiesburg is hosting a Public Hearing on March 30, 2020 at 5:30 p.m. to receive public comments related to the published draft Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report (CAPER). The CAPER describes how CDBG and HOME funding was expended and applied to activities during calendar year 2019 as well as community development efforts in general.

While it is required that we host this public hearing, due to ongoing health concerns with COVID-19, we strongly encourage citizens with comments to provide those comments by email to pwingo@hattiesburgms.com or by phone to 601-545-4558 no later than 5:00 p.m. on March 30, 2020 rather than attending the public hearing. The public hearing will NOT involve a presentation and is only an additional opportunity for public comment. The draft document is available at www.hattiesburgms.com/community-development and we are glad to answer any questions you may have. Please also note that though we will still host this public hearing, we will make every effort to ensure that the total attendance is fewer than 10 individuals at a time, and we will employ appropriate spacing according to CDC guidelines.