By Patrick Adrian
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CLAREMONT — City departments are looking to strike a balance between providing important services and ensuring public health and safety in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as officials adopt new policies and procedures.
At a special city council meeting Monday, City Manager Ed Morris and Fire Chief Bryan Burr — who is also Claremont’s emergency management director — discussed preemptive plans to limit the spread of COVID-19, a novel coronavirus.
Morris updated the council on the city’s broad emergency preparedness plan, including measures already undertaken and upcoming. He is currently working with department heads to reduce the volume of social contact between city staff and the public in the wake of Gov. Chris Sununu’s declaration of a state of emergency on Friday.
These measures vary from one department to the next, depending on role and necessity. Some public facilities are closing, while some departments are limiting their services or redirecting residents to conduct business by phone or online. The Claremont Police Department is temporarily halting some types of call responses, while the Claremont Fire Department has modified parts of its protocol.
CITY OFFICES AND NON-EMERGENCY SERVICES
“As of right now, everybody’s coming in [to their departments],” Morris said at Monday’s special council meeting. “But I’m having department heads figure out how we can minimize staff and for anyone who can work from home to work remotely.”
On Sunday, the city announced the immediate closure of Fiske Free Library and the Claremont Savings Bank Community Center until further notice.
Morris also closed the city clerk’s office on Monday but said it will still have staff to answer phone calls. Additionally, residents may still make payments online or deposit them in the department’s dropbox. The objective is to cease face-to-face interaction during the epidemic.
In offices that remain open, Morris said the city recommends that residents conduct their business by phone whenever possible and that departments will keep people at least six feet apart.
The Assessing Department has put future property assessments on hold. Additionally, the April 15 deadline to seek abatements or tax credits has been suspended.
As for due dates for payments like water bills, Morris said he expects many of those due dates to be extended, to alleviate any undue hardship on residents. The city is still putting a plan in place regarding payments and dates, and will deal with those issues on a “case-by-case basis” for the present.
FIRST RESPONDERS
The Claremont Police Department will be reducing some of their services, according to Morris. The police department will not be receiving emergency medical systems (E.M.S.) calls, and for non-essential calls the police will conduct reports by phone instead of a personal visit.
The Claremont Fire Department will not reduce its personnel responses, in part because their crew have more protective gear to reduce risk of infection, Burr told the council.
Burr said that the department will instead use a “two-prong approach” to modify the department’s current procedures: first, by adding precautionary measures when interacting with people while on a call; and second, by suspending non-emergency interactions like having youth group visits to the fire station.
“We have a limited crew,” Burr explained. “Our crew staffing is four [members per shift] and three is the minimum. We could be on the cusp of a situation where people won’t be at work, so we want to limit those exposures.”
The department will continue to respond to E.M.S. calls, but under the new policy, only one firefighter will conduct triage with the patient. The other crew will remain at the vehicle.
Additionally, the department will health-related questions to the screening questions that firefighters ask a resident to assess the safety of a situation.
“We do this [screening] regularly, so it’s not out of the norm,” Burr told the council. “But we’re going to ask more questions (than usual) when responding to medical emergencies, to include non-life-threatening questions like whether someone feels sick.”
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