City Hall to reopen Monday

BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC EDITOR

FORT MADISON - Fort Madison Mayor Matt Mohrfeld said it's time to get back to running the city.... with some common sense.

City officials announced Thursday morning that city offices will again open to the public starting June 1.

City Manager David Varley said the city will increase sanitizing of surfaces and will space people out to hold to social distancing guidelines. He also said plexiglass barriers will also be installed to help protect both residents and staff.

"We have a routing in place for wiping down counters and touch surfaces," Varley said. "And we're going to ask people to space out. We have the counter space to keep everyone six feet apart."

Varley said the city has been conducting regular business, there were just issues where people couldn't be physically present.

"Sometimes we'd have to hand permits or paperwork out the door when people would call in, but other than that we've been going about providing the services people expect," he said.

Mohrfeld said city meetings will continue as a dual process in the short-term where the council and staff are encouraged to be at meetings in person, but have the option to attend via teleconference.

"It was up to me, I'd pull the trigger and get back to business as usual with some common sense," Mohrfeld said. "The meetings will continue to be published as Zoom meetings, but I'm inviting the council and giving them to the option to not be there in person."

Mohrfeld said the main traffic at City Hall is probably paying water bills and for building permits. But he said during the closure, he hasn't seen anything to indicate the city experienced a surge in delinquent bills.

"It's time to go back to some type of business as usual with some common sense added in," Mohrfeld said. "The Library's opening back up, furloughs are over. It's time to get back to running the city."