03-30-2020 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO EMERGENCY CITY COUNCIL MEETING Wednesday, March 18, 2020 3:30 o'clock p.m. Forniak agreed and said the masks are a one-time use so they want to use them sparingly. That is why the first person on -scene goes in; if there is not a need for other personnel to enter, they stay outside. Edwards stated there has been minimal impact within Public Works with the exception of doing in-person meetings, and they have ceased doing non -emergency appointments inside of homes or businesses. They are still doing emergency work, all normal utilities testing, inspections, etc. other than when they need to go into people's houses. He noted one of the benefits of Public Works is that it already has the social distance aspect and PPE built into it. They will not be opening the golf course/golf course clubhouse until everything settles down. Within the Engineering Department, they have stopped doing in-person meetings; most of that has been able to be rolled over into digital. Some services will be limited if the City moves into a Level 4 such as utility inspections, and he will also enforce a mandatory separation of personnel in Public Works. At Level 5, the main priority would be to maintain at least 2 healthy crew members so the water and sewer systems can be maintained on a daily basis and kept operational. Printup asked if isolating the crews would include changing the hours or making sure there is someone working in the shop and another one outside. Edwards said his thought was separating the utility crew from the streets and storm crew. In normal operations, they all meet together every morning to discuss the day's activities. They would not put all 10-11 people in the same confined space. He would change hours if need be -- that probably would not be until Level 5 -- in order to keep a healthy 2 -man crew. He may have a rotation cycle go into place. Mr. Jonathan Aanestad, 3185 North Shore Drive, thanked the City of Orono for their work at this time. He said he works at the State Capitol. The State Capitol is at Orono's Level 4: the Capitol is closed; many employees are telecommuting; limited floor votes by the legislature, which will be on an as -needed basis, mostly emergency; essential personnel only. All of the people at the Capitol are taking this very seriously. He noted it was good to see that the State, County, and City levels are doing the same thing, because it will take a lot of effort to follow the protocol that's been initiated from the President on down. Walsh said he is glad the State has not spent all of the surplus yet. He suggested they pause and think about all the people that have been and will be in harm's way. Mr. Aanestad stated the surplus will be downgraded in the next two months but, more importantly, the surplus is in stasis right now, being held for emergency situations. There is legislation in the pipeline that may spend part of it. Rief reiterated that Planning is still taking phone calls and issuing permits. The City Clerk is also still issuing permits. The majority of everything related to those departments can now be done online. While there are not in-person meetings, they will be implementing a GoToMeeting to allow those to still happen and give video as it is available. Walsh stated the foresight that the City had in bringing online permitting and everything else the past couple of years has helped the City's situation a lot. Johnson commented those are the type of projects that can be worked on if/when the City slows down. Page 6 of 8