The City of Marysville is taking steps to protect city residents and employees.
Moments after Gov. Mike DeWine’s press conference Wednesday discouraging public gatherings, city officials announced they would be postponing or canceling events and limiting people in city buildings.
“The City of Marysville is going to operate as we always do,” City Manager Terry Emery said. “We are just trying to limit our interactions with large groups of people as much as possible. We are trying to insulate our employees as much as possible.”
He cited Gov. Mike DeWine’s press conference from Wednesday and said the city “fully supports the Governor’s goal to reduce exposure.”
Emery said the city is “actively partnering with our local public health agencies and the State of Ohio in working to help minimize the community spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).”
The city manager said some events will be canceled, some events will be postponed and some events will go on as scheduled. He said some of the decision making “will be based on what we see as the anticipated attendance levels as well as the impact and seeing the need to have these meetings.”
Emery said an open house, scheduled for Monday, to discuss changes to the city zoning code will be postponed.
“We will seek to get input from people and they can reach out to us online or by phone and we will make a determination from there if we need to have a public meeting,” Emery said.
The City’s State of the City event, scheduled for March 19 will likely happen, Emery said, but “we will likely refrain from having spectators at that event.”
He said the panel participants will still have a discussion and a recap video still will be presented.
Emery said the city will live stream the event and the video will be available on city social media. The event will also be covered by the Marysville Journal-Tribune.
Notices of meetings and/or events being rescheduled will be posted on the City of Marysville website and other social media outlets.
City officials are also asking residents who normally visit City Hall for services to “conduct their business online or over the telephone, if practicable.”
Emery stressed that city offices are not closed and officials will still meet with residents who choose to come into City Hall.
“We will still be there, but we want people to think about using other means,” Emery said. “Our business at City Hall, we are running as we always do. We are operating as we always do. But if citizens are able, they might want to interact with us either through technology, the internet, or by phone calls.”
He said a night drop box, located behind City Hall, is also available for utility and income tax payments.
Additionally, the police and municipal court community room, Decker Fire Station training room and City Hall Council Chambers are temporarily closed for any non-city related event.
“Really ‘how long?’ is unknown,” Emery said, adding it is important, “to see where this is going to go over the next week or two.”
He encouraged people to take additional, precautions as recommended by the health department and other health agencies.
“If we are diligent about this in the next couple of weeks, we can get through this and move past it,” City Manager Terry Emery said.