“Regardless of the situation, the city still has to functions,” said Falmouth Mayor Ron Stinson in regards to him and three of the four city hall employees who have tested positive to Covid-19.
“We still have to make water for the entire county, pickup the trash, do the payroll, oversee the utilities, handling billing and pay our bills no matter what,” he added.
The Falmouth City Hall announced via Facebook last week that they would be closed to the public because two employees had tested positive. Since then, a third employee tested, and Stinson received news that he had tested positive on Tuesday, November 24. He did indicate that his wife, Carla, had tested negative.
Stinson said he has a little sinus drainage just like he did last year as the weather broke and said the three employees just feel cold-like symptoms; however, one employee was later hospitalized with double pneumonia.
“If we did not know Covid existed, we would think we had a cold and show up for work,” he said of most of the infected.
The city is moving to provide laptops to the employees to allow them to network and work from home. One of the positive-tested employees already has that ability. With no one in the office, one of the employees checks into the office on a daily basis to check for utility bill payments that have been dropped off and credit card payments that need to be handled.
As of Monday morning, a member of the city’s police department received a positive result, but he had already been quarantining as a precaution. Stinson commented on the possibility of other departments being affected, as well. “We have a contingency in place if it does affect other departments. We make the water for all of the county and we will continue to do that no matter what.”
