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City of Norris
Thursday 20 March, 2020 |
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Effective Thursday 19 March 2020
To further reduce exposure risk the following city staff actions will be in place:
Access to city facilities (City Office)(Water-Sewer)(Public Works)(Police-Fire) will be limited to the staff assigned to that building. Routine cleaning previously supported by the Public Works staff will be done by the staff occupying the facility. Cleaning will be expanded to sanitization practices recommended for COVID-19. Garbage will be set outside for pickup by Public Works on pre-arranged schedule. Mail and document processing will be arranged without direct personal contact when possible.
Council, Board, and Commission members that need to interact with city staff (e.g. signing checks) will be pre-arranged and will be done at the back door of the community room with social distance rules applied.
Police and Fire responses with direct or close personal contact will continue for serious conditions. The number of responders will be held at the minimum necessary to limit exposure to the entire cadre. Non-emergency investigations or complaints will be handled over the phone when possible.
Governor Lee and the state legislature is working on legislation to support emergency use of virtual meetings where public meetings and the sunshine law are applied. I am looking at virtual meeting options for the city to include boards and commissions. All meetings are cancelled until further notice. The primary need for meetings in the next few months will be to support the budget process and maintain city essential functions. Beer Board, BZA, Planning agendas will be supported as we are able but are not considered “essential functions” and could be delayed for weeks to months.
Public Works activities such as grass mowing, brush pickup, etc., will continue. The Spring Clean-up will be postponed indefinitely. This activity puts the public works staff in direct contact with objects from potentially contaminated homes. This activity has no appropriate PPE option so it will be postponed until after the exposure risk subsides.
Animal Shelter Commission Volunteers should work with Kerry on access during off hours. This is to limit viral exposure risks in that facility.
Since the facilities are closed to the public all city owned public restrooms will remain closed and will not be serviced regularly by the Public Works Staff. The Anderson County Library Commission will be responsible for library hours of operation and facility cleaning. Garbage can be set outside for pickup as coordinated with Public Works (Kerry). The Norris Museum and Recreation Room are closed indefinitely.
The Rifle Range remains open and will be serviced. This could be restricted in the near future due to gate lock and social distance exposure issues. No new permits are being processed right now.
Stay Tuned,
Scott Hackler Norris City Manager 865-202-6656 |
