(Seguin) — Local retailers aren’t the only one’s staffing up again. The city of Seguin is also bringing more people into the office. City Manager Steve Parker on Tuesday provided the Seguin City Council with an update on the city’s latest response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Parker says many city departments are back in full swing.
“All of our operational crews, streets, traffic, brush are all back, water, wastewater, electric are all back full-time. They are staggering those shifts where some come in at 7:30, some come in at 8, so come in at 8:30 a.m. so they are all not there at the same time, all in big groups and they come in at different times to make sure that there is not that overlap so that we don’t come up with a whole crew infected at one point. If we do have teleworking people that have the ability to work from home, EDC, finance, some of those areas that have the ability to do a lot of work on the computer at home, they are still allowed to do that. We are really trying to minimize the number of people that are in these departments at one given time,” said Parker.
Parker says they are still limiting public access to city facilities, including the lobby at Seguin City Hall. He says people are still able to do business with the city, but they are still trying to do all they can to keep people safe during the pandemic. He says they are also slowly reopening the Seguin Public Library. He says the library is a very interactive space, so it’s going to take a little while longer for it to be completely reopened to the public.
“We are still limiting people from coming into the library. We have been doing curbside. A lot of volume still going out. They are doing a great job with that. We do plan on expanding that May 11 to include Saturdays as well and then we also want to look at — one of the things that people want to come in and need to fill out a resume, need to fill out some financial paperwork, having those access to laptops — we plan on opening up that May 11-16. Make it a reservation. This isn’t about checking YouTube and playing around on a computer but to really have a designated time. Make it worth your while. Make your reservation. We are going to make sure we have enough time between those to stagger those reservations (and) we have time for proper cleaning. We have been working with facilities to put up guards for the desk workers that are there at the library services so we are continuing to do all those things and as each week goes on, our plan is to gradually implement more (and) expand hours,” said Parker.
Parker says the Texas economy continues to open, social distancing rules continue to be in place, and it’s not clear how long they will last. He says, that’s one of the reasons why he wants the council to consider how the city should handle the city’s Fourth of July Parade this year. Parker says an item will be placed on the agenda in two weeks, and it will give the council some potential options should social distancing requirements remain in place this summer.
“We do have some contingency plans to do an alternate parade route where people can stay in their cars. I think the ultimate goal is to try to have a Fourth of July parade but as things progress (and) we get updated numbers on the number of cases, I think we could make that determination (and) let the council see what direction ya’ll want us to have. We could show you the alternate parade route and then talk about the pros and cons. We have a little bit of time before we have to council with the fireworks display people. We can actually push that to another time period if we get to that point and so we have that flexibility but we wanted to bring back a special item at the next meeting,” said Parker.
The number of COVID-19 cases in Seguin currently stands at 16. Parker says more testing is expected to soon come to Seguin. He says the Texas Department of State Health Services is planning on hosting a drive-thru testing site in Seguin later this month.