MANSFIELD — Richland County Commissioner Marilyn John said Thursday morning that establishing a local COVID-19 protocol should not been seen as alarming to residents or county employees.
“Planning does not equate to panic,” John said as she and fellow commissioners Tony Vero and Darrell Banks went over steps the county is taking, and will take, to help safeguard against the spread of coronavirus.
At this time, commissioners said county buildings will remain open, though other elected officials or agencies governed by their own boards will determine any individual department limitations.
Commissioners also announced a special meeting for Friday at 8 a.m. to meet with department heads to discuss COVID-19 issues.
According to the one-page protocol, the county will:
— seek extra cleaning services for the county courthouse, focusing in public areas.
— purchase and distribute Clorox wipes and protective, disposable gloves to each county department. Commissioners urge at least daily cleaning of high-touch areas in each department.
— purchase and distribute hand sanitizer to each department and place dispensers of the sanitizers throughout the halls of county buildings.
— encourage each department to assess their individual functions and provide a list of options that would allow the public to interact with county government operations remotely where possible.
— ask each department to assess outside meetings requiring travel and pursue video conferencing where possible.
— ask departments to host meetings in a large-enough space to allow social distancing. Six feet is suggested by Richland Public Health.
Also on Thursday, commissioners:
— approved a resolution in support of a agricultural easement application that would help permanently preserve 154 acres as farmland in Plymouth Township for Alvin Horst Jr. The Western Land Conservancy District is applying for grant funds through the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s Local Agricultural Easement Purchase Plan.
— approved vehicle purchases totaling $265,200 for the Richland County engineer’s office, including a dump truck, two pick-up trucks and a track loader that has a bucket in the front. Funds for the vehicles will come from the auto license/gas tax budget, not the county general fund. The vehicles will replacing aging vehicles in the engineer’s office fleet.
