Weekly press conferences on COVID-19 with local leaders will begin at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, but at the first one Friday in the city council chambers, Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer announced the city will extend its stay-at-home order for nonessential city employees from Monday night to April 18.

It was just hours before Gov. Eric Holcomb announced he was extending the state’s order Monday for two more weeks. His original order was until 11:59 p.m. April 6.

The local press conferences are livestreamed through the city of Warsaw’s website for the public, and if it’s determined that more of the meetings are necessary, Thallemer said they will do that. County Commissioners President Brad Jackson is scheduled to be a part of Wednesday’s event. In attendance Friday were Kosciusko County Health Department Public Health Officer Dr. Bill Remington, Warsaw Police Chief Scott Whitaker and Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory Chief Mike Wilson.

Anticipating that Holcomb Friday afternoon would extend his order, Thallemer said, “As you know, we issued a stay-at-home for our employees that expires this Monday night at 11:59, so we are going to extend that. I signed a new executive order today extending that for another two weeks.”

He said the city was trying to follow what Holcomb does and in accordance with state and federal guidelines. Thallemer believes the stay-at-home order likely will go beyond April 18, but wanted to do it in two-week increments to provide the city with some flexibility.

During the order, Thallemer said city offices will remain closed to the public. All recreational programs and rentals are cancelled through April 18.

Staffing in city buildings is down to “bare bones,” he said, with essential employees’ hours reduced at all city offices. Many city employees are able to work from home. If a city employee needs to be in a city office to complete some work, they have been instructed to go home as soon as they are finished.

“Essential services, obviously, will remain available. So, again, if you have a need, phone the office you need assistance with or leave a message if they’re not there by phone or online. You certainly will be given full attention, it just may not be as rapidly as we’re normally allowed to do,” Thallemer said.

As for city employees’ pay, Thallemer said there was a discussion about that at the last city council meeting and the council passed an ordinance and “we determined that not knowing how long this was going to go, the ordinance allows for up to 60 days where both those that are working and those that are at home will receive the same pay.”

The county commissioners earlier this week approved a policy that if the stay-at-home order extends beyond two weeks, county employees who are not essential and are not working will see their pay reduced to two-thirds of their wages, for up to 10 weeks.

Thallemer said the city’s ordinance applies only to an emergency through the end of the year.

“The posture that we’ve taken as a city is that we are going to split a lot of shifts to minimize exposure,” he said. “And although a lot of our folks are not working full time, and I don’t know many businesses that are working full time, but they will be on-call, they will be working from home, they will be working split shifts within the city. So we consider about everyone essential at this point.”

Depending on how long the pandemic and stay-at-home order goes, he said the city council may have to revisit the ordinance after 60 days.

“It’s a combination of how long this goes and whether or not government units might be on the receiving end of compensation for this,” he said.

There’s been many questions in the public about what is and isn’t “essential” businesses.

Thallemer said, “We’ve been following the governor’s executive orders that restricts travel to essential, and we’re also giving great credibility to the state and federal definitions of essential businesses. I think this is an important time to talk about how critical this is .... If your business is not listed as essential – the direct definition – the business should not be open. We certainly ask people not to be congregating outside. If you’ve got to go to the store, if you’ve got to go check on a loved one, if you are essentially traveling to work, go from point A to point B, do your job, keep your distance, wash your hands, go back home. But we don’t want congregating.”

Whitaker has received guidance on enforcement of Holcomb’s orders from the Indiana State Police. The Bureau of Alcohol and Tobacco is involved in the enforcement of restaurants and bars being closed to dining-in.

Whitaker said, “Right now, when it comes to the establishments, I don’t know that we’re really getting that many calls, but, obviously, as the mayor said, I believe state excise and state police will be involved. But for us, through the prosecutor’s office, it’s going to simply be to document and provide that information to the prosecutor’s office for a determination. So, at this point, we certainly, as police officers, have a difficult time maybe establishing what is essential and what isn’t, so if we believe something is nonessential, we can provide that information to the prosecutor’s office for his review and determination.”

The travel ban is a “big part” of what the police deal with, he said. “For the most part, I’ve got to think our community ... we’re going to step up to the challenge and we’re going to abide by these orders. Our intent is not to stop cars and ask them if you have purpose to be traveling. If we are to come across you, for other means, obviously that could come up.”

During the press conference, the mayor went department by department on what the public can expect over the next few weeks.

Thallemer said the Warsaw police and fire departments are working together with all the county agencies to provide uniformity in the approach to the coronavirus.

“Our No. 1 goal is to keep our public safety officers safe, but able to do their job, which, again, is very challenging at this point,” Thallemer said.

Whitaker spoke on how his department is working with the county prosecutor’s office and all the police agencies in the county to have standard protocol.

“Uniformity is key in the countywide law enforcement effort,” Whitaker said, speaking on behalf of all the police chiefs in the county, Sheriff Kyle Dukes and Prosecutor Dan Hampton. “Every law enforcement entity has participated in these group meetings that obviously now are being taken by conference calls. We made great strides in working with Central Dispatch. As I think anyone would expect, it’s important we are all under the same guidelines for this temporary occasion during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

He said they do have Kosciusko County law enforcement guidelines that were facilitated through Hampton and all the police chiefs, but that was “not for public use,” and he wanted the public to know all law enforcement agencies are communicating.

Whitaker said he feels “very, very good” about WPD, its officers, training and equipment. He said WPD will continue to provide the services for the community.

The WPD is still functioning as a police department, he said, though the office staff is more of a skeleton crew.

“We changed the shifts so we have better coverage, and this is coverage 24 hours a day to provide the best service and be the most prepared we can for our community,” Whitaker said.

Officers are practicing social distancing, do not congregate, but Whitaker said citizens will see officers all over the city.

Wilson said a Kosciusko County Emergency Services Cooperative was formed the first part of March. That includes management personnel from law enforcement agencies, the health department, the coroner’s office and Lutheran EMS.

He said they’ve started a phone tree, starting with the health department, to find out what happened during the last 24 hours in the county. They pull the information together, then email it back out “so that all of us are working on the same page,” Wilson said. “That also goes out to every volunteer fire department in Kosciusko County.”

Wilson said the group is not only looking at what to do today, but “we’re setting the gauge and plans for down the road in the event that this escalates. So we’re looking at two to three weeks out.”

Thallemer said the street department will continue to collect curbside waste, including large-item pick-up. It will be filling potholes and doing emergency repairs. Like other departments, the street department will have reduced staff and hours, but will respond “as we need to,” he said.

The Warsaw Municipal Airport “must remain open” by FAA standards, Thallemer said. Activity though, is “all but halted out there.” It does have reduced staffing, but is available to handle incoming and outgoing flights.

The city’s building and planning department has “very reduced” staffing and hours, Thallemer said. Much of its business can be handled online or by phone.

The clerk-treasurer’s office is assessing claims and paying bills, but with reduced staff and shortened hours.

Oakwood Cemetery

The staff of Oakwood Cemetery continues its work with split shifts.

The Parks and Recreation Department has reduced its staff. They will begin mowing. The recreation side of the department does offer some online activities on its Facebook page.

The weather is getting nice and people are wanting to get outside, and they should, Thallemer acknowledged. “I think it’s great to enjoy your back yard with your family. A lot of work to be done at home, but please stay with your family. And if you do happen to go out and talk a walk, respect social distancing. Respect the fact that this virus can travel outside as well as it can inside.”

Thallemer said the city will leave its parks open, but if the city finds trouble with people congregating, the city will ask law enforcement to ask people to go home.

“If we have a continued problem with that, we will probably have to shut the parks down. But for now, the parks do remain open,” he said.

Playground equipment is being closed off to the public due to the virus.

People walking on the trails should respect the suggested 6-foot distance from others, he stated.