WINONA – The Winona Board of Aldermen are considering rotating the schedules of city hall employees to ensure COVID-19 does not interrupt city business.
In Tuesday’s meeting of the board, City Clerk June Williams asked the board to consider rotating the schedules of the four employees at city hall, with two working in the office for a week and the other two working remotely from home and then rotating the next week. Williams said she will need to price hardware to have laptops, printers, and scanners available for the two clerks working from home.
Alderman Mickey Austin asked if closing the lobby of city hall once again would suffice to prevent an outbreak at city hall, however, Williams said if one employee tests positive, all four clerks would have to quarantine, leaving no one to handle business at city hall.
Efforts have already been made to isolate employees at the water department, with water employees handling tasks individually. However, a positive COVID-19 test of an employee at the water Jerry Flowers concerned about future exposure of the city employees, especially those in the street and water departments who often work side-by-side. He said every department needs to establish a contingency plan to ensure employees are safe and city business continues.
As for city hall, the board asked Williams to price the equipment needed, and they will make a decision in the coming days.
In other business:
• The board voted to accept bids from both Bank of Winona and Bank of Kilmichael as the city depositories. Alderman David Ware abstained from the vote.
• The board asked Winona Park Director Mike Narmour to price replacements for the pavilion located at the Winona Recreational Park.
• The board accepted the resignation of part-time officer, Jody Windham.
• The board voted to advertise to hire police officers for the Winona Police Department. Chief of Police Tommy Bibbs recommended the board look at the salary scale for the department in an effort to recruit qualified officer candidates.
“If you want to get quality people, you have to pay for them,” Bibbs said.
• Williams informed the board that the city’s email conversion to Birdsong Technologies, the city’s new IT company, will be done Monday.
• The board discussed the sale of fireworks inside the city limits of Winona. Alderman Mickey Austin questioned why fireworks can be sold to the public long before the city’s ordinance allows them to be fired in the city. In addition, Austin asked the board to ask fireworks vendors to remove temporary signage the day after sales conclude. City Attorney Adam Kirk said he would draw up a proposed amendment to the city’s fireworks ordinance for the board to review at its next meeting.
• The board agreed that any obligated funds not spent after the Frontage Road extension project may be used to pay the contractor for damage repairs to the road bed caused by large trucks entering the road before it was ready. According to Mayor Flowers, the city has obligated funding for the project and all obligated funds need to be spent. The board is requiring that the contractor be responsible for paying any funds over the obligated amount caused by the damages to the road bed.
• The board voted unanimously to nominate Chief of Police Tommy Bibbs and community volunteer Calbrina Woods for the Mississippi Municipal League’s Excellence Award.
