(Red Oak) Red Oak City Administrator Brad Wright discussed additional COVID-19 measures at Monday’s City Council meeting. The new strategies come on the heels of Iowa Governor Reynolds latest proclamation released on Monday night.
Wright says the new measures are geared toward the City’s workforce and City Hall. For example, keeping employees from congregating in the public workshop, taking separate vehicles to a job site, creating less time with two or three employees in one vehicle, and encouraging face-covering when close to other people.
“This is something as an employer we haven’t mandated,” said Wright. “Certainly, when you have employees involved in strenuous labor activities, it’s difficult to expect them to wear a mask all of the time. But are we encouraging the use of face coverings when they are in the office or a closed building environment.”
Wright says individuals should wear a face covering when coming into City Hall for routine business. He says the City has had employees come down with the virus and others have been exposed.
”That’s been a concern since this whole thing started; it’s not just when someone gets sick, it’s also when someone gets exposed,” explained Wright. “The question arises do you send them home and for how long. And as this virus becomes more prevalent, if you send everybody home, there is no one left to conduct business.”
Wright says they’ve been allowing symptom-free essential employees to return to work a little bit earlier, while kept isolated from others, and masked up when it’s impossible to social distance.
