Tonight’s Demorest City Council meeting and political forum have been canceled due to what the city manager has described as a “COVID-19 outbreak” in City Hall. Of the five employees who work at Demorest City Hall, one tested positive for the virus, two tested negative, and test results are pending for two others.
“The fact we have a positive COVID case is affecting how we operate, at least today,” says Demorest Mayor Rick Austin. While no one on the Demorest City Council has tested positive for COVID-19, one councilman may have been exposed. “He is testing today,” says City Manager Kim Simonds, adding that the city is doing contract tracing “as much as we can.”
Demorest City Hall is temporarily closed so it can be disinfected. “Our Fire Department will be using the same de-contaminant used for ambulances and first responders,” Simonds tells Now Habersham. That disinfectant, called Bioesque, is a spray application that is said to kill the coronavirus on surfaces in four minutes. The office will be sprayed late today and left to dry.
“Testing will be complete today and all results should be received by the end of the day,” according to Simonds. All employees that tested negative will return to work at 8 a.m. tomorrow, Wednesday, Oct. 7.
Delayed action, forum
The Demorest City Council was scheduled to vote tonight on the city’s millage rate and decide whether to renew a $60,000 security contract with Habersham Medical Center. Demorest was also scheduled to host a political forum prior to the meeting so that members of the public could ask questions of the seven candidates vying for two open seats on the city council.
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That was all nixed with this announcement from Simonds: “Due to the COVID-19 outbreak in the Demorest City Office, the City Council meeting (and all accompanying events) scheduled for tonight, Tuesday, October 6, has been cancelled.”
“There is business that the city of Demorest needs to attend to and we need to reschedule this meeting as quickly as we can, including the political forum,” Mayor Austin tells Now Habersham. “Hopefully, that will occur next Tuesday.”
A post to the city’s Facebook page states the next meeting is October 27, but Simonds says they are still working to decide when the millage rate meeting and forum will be held. Now Habersham will update this story when the rescheduled date is announced.
