The City of Quitman continues to operate and is doing its best to abide by social distancing restrictions.

City Administrator Rodney Kieke said the city is keeping co-workers at a distance at their respective jobs.

”With the city staff, anybody who can work from home is working from home. I’ve got several people who come in throughout the week to do different functions they can’t perform at home. We are limiting it to a maximum of two people here at the office,” Kieke explained. “I’m here all the time and the judge (Lauren Doan) will come in some of the time. A lot of hers is computerized so she can do that at home.” 

“The only appointments I am taking are permitting things,” he said. “The water clerk, Amber Highnote, actually comes in and processes the payments for deposits. For the guys on the street, we have asked them whenever possible to utilize two vehicles. We are trying to limit close proximity. We have prioritized our workloads.”

There might be a time when “all hands are on the deck” such as a water main break, according to Kieke. “You might see one person out mowing instead of two. When taking meter reads, you might see a guy riding on the tailgate. We are doing our best to limit how much cab time the workers have together,” Kieke noted. “On days when we don’t have specific things to do, we may send half the crew home, but we are not taking them off the payroll. They are still being paid.”

“The water plant is different,” he said. “The waste water plant operates with two operators. We have taken that down to one operator. We are keeping one at home while the other one works. I believe they are doing five days and five days. It is a seven day a week thing. We sure don’t want two operators sick at the same time.”

Kieke said the city would continue to mirror the governor’s orders concerning safety concerns of COVID-19.

The storm debris from Sunday night’s high winds and rain are keeping city workers occupied with removal of limbs and downed trees.

The city is going to be using the open field near Ballard Memorial Gym to ease the debris problem.

“We are going to have a dump zone there in the area where they have the homecoming bonfire so people can bring their trees and limbs. We don’t want any construction debris, you are on your own there,” Kieke remarked. “We have a chipper that cruises around, but that thing will only take about a four inch branch. At the dump zone we are going to manage, they can throw their stuff down and we will push up with our equipment and burn it.”