Washington City Council discusses city operations during COVID-19 restrictions

WASHINGTON - The Washington City Council discussed public safety as well as city operations in light of COVID-19 during its meeting Tuesday night.

The meeting was held in the Washington Fire Station with all council members and other attendees spaced out to respect social distancing standards.

Mayor Jaron Rosien announced the meeting would be recorded and put on the city's website Wednesday for anyone who was unable to attend the meeting to listen back on if they chose.

Rosien said he was on a conference call with Gov. Kim Reynolds earlier that day and she supported the choice to continue to have open meetings but also abide by public health recommendations. For that reason, he suggested anyone from the public who has something they would like to address with the council contact their elected official instead of attending for health and safety reasons.

The comments would be read during the meeting in order to be included in the minutes, he said. Contact information for all members of the council can be found on the city's website.

On Monday, Rosien declared a state of emergency in town and closed the library from the public and the city hall from the public on Tuesday beginning at 12 p.m. Staff are still working in both buildings, he said and are available to the public if assistance is needed.

The drop box still is open for those who need to pay bills and credit cards will be accepted over the phone. Water bills can be paid online and the normal processing fee will be waived during this time, said Finance Director Kelsey Brown.

'We are doing everything that we can and if we need to work with people, we will,” she said.

A question was raised about child care services during the outbreak. Council member and Washington County Public Health Director Danielle Pettit-Majewski said the governor is currently working on a plan to be implemented if needed.

'What the governor is working on right now is if you are a single parent or there are two parents working in any of the essential services they will provide that child care,” she said, explaining the essential services could range from health care to food service to law enforcement. 'It's not a perfect solution by any means.”

City Administrator Brent Hinson said as far as road construction goes, crews are still working and on target with completion dates while still complying with public safety standards. Police Chief Jim Lester noted officers are beginning to take more precautions as well and have begun taking some calls for service via phone.

Pettit-Majewski said all these precautions may seem tedious but the point is to flatten the curve of the virus in order to assist the health care system.

'The purpose in doing everything that we're doing is so that it looks like it wasn't necessary. The goal is that we look foolish at the end and everybody said we didn't need to do what we did. That is the best outcome,” she said. 'If we do nothing everybody will get sick at once and our health care infrastructure cannot sustain that.”

People will not necessarily die from coronavirus but from stroke, heart attack or the like because the health care system will be over run and unable to assist everyone, she said. Currently there are 1 million ventilators in the United States and 700,000 of them are already occupied. With only two in Washington, these precautions are essential, she said.

'We are doing this so people don't have to choose between venting your daughter or your mom,” she said.