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BELLEFONTE -- Employees in Centre County Government will soon start to head back to the office.
At Tuesday's Centre County commissioners' meeting, it was announced that a transition from full remote work will begin to take place over the next several weeks.
"We think we're kind of at the cusp and could move safely from a full remote work status to a modified rotation of our workforce," said county administrator Margaret Gray. "We would want to do this cautiously and slowly over the next several weeks."
According to Gray, there was a myriad of factors taken into account when making the recommendation.
"We looked at several factors, including positivity rate in our county, number of hospitalizations as well as the impact on our own county workforce," Gray said.
Centre County is still seeing a slight uptick in cases. As of Monday, it had 16,139 total cases of COVID-19 in the county since the start of the pandemic. Mount Nittany Medical Center is currently treating 35 COVID-19 inpatients, a slight increase since the last report on Friday, April 23.
"In contrast to the April 13 meeting, we're looking at a positivity rate for our county that has decreased just ever so slightly. The county is still considered to be in the 'substantial' range for positivity. Hospitalizations are down. Two weeks ago, they were at a high over the last few months, but they have trended down … but the hospital is still concerned with the numbers they're seeing," Gray said.
However, Gray said that fewer county employees have contracted the deadly virus recently and that more and more are getting vaccinated, which prompted the recommendation.
"Within our own workforce, we're seeing April compared to March … a decline in the number of employees who have contracted COVID-19 and the number of individuals who have had to quarantine due to exposure," Gray said.
Gray said that county employees -- as they return to in-person work -- will still have to wear masks and social distance in an office environment.
"As long as we continue to emphasize the extreme importance of masking -- even if people have been vaccinated -- and social distancing in our offices, I think that this could be considered a prudent next step in our direction to our workforce," Gray said.
Chair Michael Pipe agreed with the recommendation.
"Stressing the fact that this is being done in a mindful, judicious way as we progress and have more people in the building, I think is a good way to go," Pipe said.
He said that county buildings would still be closed to the public and those with business to conduct would need to do so "by appointment."
"It wouldn't be where we're opening our doors yet," Pipe said.
Commissioner Mark Higgins recommended that the county give its employees time to find childcare.
"Perhaps we might have a couple of employees who don't have childcare scheduled at this point. Perhaps if they need an extra week or two to get childcare arranged, I would be fine with department heads giving some exemptions for time for people to make arrangements for childcare," Higgins said.
"I think that's a great point," Pipe said.
Gray agreed and said that the county will need to provide a "runway" as employees head back to the office.
In other business Tuesday, the commissioners:
-- Approved Proclamation No. 10 of 2021, which proclaims May 2-8, 2021 as Corrections Employee Week in Centre County.
-- Approved Proclamation No. 11 of 2021, which proclaims May 2021 as Bicycle Awareness Month and May 21, 2021 as Bike-to-Work Day in Centre County.
-- Approved a contract addendum with Central Intermediate Unit (CIU) No. 10 to allow for State allocations for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2020-2021 to provide early intervention services to include special instruction, interpretation and IFSP Teaming services in the amount of $11,667.
This increases the contract total from $8,333 to $20,000, which is funded as follows: State $18,000 and county $2,000 for the period of
July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021. The item was moved to next week's consent agenda.
-- Approved a letter of agreement with Elizabeth Beckman-Nemenz, DPT to provide early intervention services to include physical therapy. The total cost of this agreement is $7,000, which is funded as follows: State $6,300 and county $700 for the period of July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021. That item was also moved to next week's consent agenda.
-- Approved an agreement with Terry Williams, Esquire of Law Offices of Miller, Kistler, and Campbell to serve as conflict counsel for the Centre County Planning and Community Development office. The contract rate is $250 per hour.
The Centre County commissioners will meet again at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, May 4. The meeting will be held via Zoom and televised live on C-NET.