How Woodlands County has been dealing with COVID-19 restrictions

Woodlands County administration has dealt with uncertainties amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the same as everyone else. Running the County is just like running a business, and as any business owner can attest to, dealing with the restrictions and protocols of the pandemic has been otherworldly. Woodlands County Chief Administrative Officer Gordon Frank said that the biggest challenge they have faced is continuing operations while at the same time protecting employees from the everyday activities that they do.

When the shutdown was in place, programming stopped, and seven staff received laid off notices. Since reopening, all but one has returned to work, and the remaining staff member will return in September when programming, hopefully, picks up again. One of the significant factors in dealing with their recovery plan has been balancing the financial situation. “It just makes it that much more difficult to ensure that we can continue to provide the services but also balance the financial needs to ensure we continue to operate,” explained Frank. On top of the temporary layoffs, administration also reduced the number of hours for all staff members and some senior management members took a wage decrease to compensate, even though they still worked five days a week. “We wanted to make it fair for everybody.”

The initial closing of the office saved a bit of cash, but there were also costs associated with putting together home offices for staff that still had to continue running the County from their living rooms. “We weren’t prepared for that type of thing, so additional equipment such as computers and tablets was needed, and some individuals didn’t have a home office, so they needed to take chairs home, or we had to allocate some funds towards furniture.” Council needed training on the virtual platform, too, which was an added expense.

Other costs that have popped up since the second stage of reopening are the same costs that many other businesses have had to cover, such as extra cleaning supplies, signage, and physical barriers at main offices. Frank said residents are now able to access the office and that meetings requested can be set up. Unlike previously, where residents could walk in and potentially get a meeting right away without advanced notice, requests will need to be preplanned. The reason is that some staff members are continuing to work from home so that if an outbreak did occur, all staff would not be affected by it. “We have to ensure we have continuity. If there were an outbreak in our organization, we would need to have staff available for emergency management, and we would need personnel that can coordinate that. That is why some of us are still working from home,” said Frank.

One hurdle they dealt with was through mixed messages that would sometimes come down from the provincial and federal governments. “They are learning as they go through this, and sometimes there are interpretations of what the actual protocols are.” One example that Frank gave had to do with cleaning at playgrounds. “First, it had to be cleaned and disinfected before we could open them up, and then it changed and became the responsibility of the people using the structure to ensure that they were disinfecting it. We then had suggestions that if we opened it up that we would have to document the cleaning and that it should be more vigorous. They didn’t specify if we had to disinfect it weekly but that if we did disinfect it more regularly, that we had to document it.” He said it was a bit confusing.

The same situation led to public washrooms remaining closed at recreation sites throughout the County. “One of our protocols previously was that we did once a week cleaning. They (Alberta Health) recommended that if we opened them up that they had to be cleaned more frequently and documented. We didn’t have the manpower to it daily.” Frank said that it changed again when Alberta Health said they could clean them less frequently but that if they chose that route, they would have to put up signage to warn users. “We made a conscious decision that we weren’t going to open them up.”

The good news is that public bathrooms at recreation sites, such as Hard Luck Canyon, will be opening very soon as summer students can fill the role. “We will open them up with the understanding that the public uses them sparingly, and we will monitor them. You want to remove that level of risk to lessen your liability. That is what most municipalities are struggling with.” Another spot that had a delayed opening was the spray park in Blue Ridge. Frank said that they had to go through the chemicals they use and carefully plan out the necessary cleaning. “The nice thing about our spray park, aside from the fact that there is only one piece of equipment to touch to turn it on, everything gets disinfected by the water because there are enough chemicals in it.” The Berry Nice Spray Park in Blue Ridge officially opened on Saturday, July 18.

One recreational option in Woodlands County that will not be coming back this summer is group camping. The logistics of keeping groups socially-distanced and making sure that less than 50 people group together are too risky. There have been positive changes that came to light due to the scramble of COVID-19 restrictions, and one of the biggest is that Woodlands County found a way to be completely transparent with residents through live-streamed regular meetings. “We made the decision early on that we felt this was an opportunity to introduce this technology and be transparent.”

On Tuesday (the day this paper comes out), County administration will present to Council the idea to continue providing live-streamed and recorded meetings even after regular in-person meetings start back up. “It is more transparent this way, and individuals can watch meetings at their leisure, live or the next day,” he said. “We have received positive feedback, and we are proposing that we continue doing this. It provides our residents with the opportunity to engage, and watch, and provide feedback to their elected officials and administration.” The Press will report on this more thoroughly if Council approves it.