Wife of City of Lock Haven Employee Contracts COVID-19

LOCK HAVEN – The wife of a City of Lock Haven employee has come down with COVID-19. City manager Greg Wilson gave an update on the virus’s affects on city staff at the end of Monday night’s virtual city council meeting.

Wilson said the city recently brought back three workers to the public works department, but lost one, the employee whose wife tested positive. He said the employee’s spouse is receiving treatment and is in isolation, and the employee will be quarantined by the Department of Health. He told council there are five city employees that the employee came into contact with and two of those employees qualified as “close contact” under the CDC definition. Those two employees have been sent home as well for at least seven days, Wilson said, and must be fever-free for at least 72 hours before being able to return to work. The remaining employees in public works either had no “close contact” or no contact at all with the employee or with any shared surfaces.

Wilson announced that under the direction of Chief Bob Neff, the Fire Department will begin to sanitize the city’s vehicles and shared surfaces that the employees may have been in contact with using specialized equipment, and should complete their work Tuesday. The city requires social distancing by all essential and life-sustaining employees reporting to city work places, including those in public works, as well as the regular cleaning of hands and all shared surfaces, and, effective this past Sunday, wearing masks unless working independently. He said the Director of Public Works will ensure 100percent compliance to all workplace guidelines of the Pennsylvania Department of Health as implemented by the city over the past month before any additional employees are recalled from furlough.

Council spent much of its meeting in debating extra compensation for city employees at work during the coronavirus pandemic. Council members ultimately voted 6-1 in favor of granting an extra $2 an hour for employees who are required to continue to work on-site.

Council member Doug Byerly was the lone no vote. He said there is no mandate for the extra pay and indicated he would prefer to wait to see if there may be state or federal funding to cover the costs. Councilman Steve Stevenson estimated the $2 an hour figure would mean an additional $160 every two-week pay period for those covered by the resolution. The hike is retroactive to March 17. That was the date city facilities were closed to the public and “only available to employees engaged in essential and life-saving operations,” according to the resolution.