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Cities balance pandemic with eye on the future
SIKESTON — With people staying home and the majority of businesses impacted or in some cases closed, local city governments are finding themselves trying to balance the pandemic with an eye on the future as well.
In Sikeston, nearly all city operations are continuing, but most city facilities have been closed to the public to avoid any unnecessary exposure for both the public and city employees.
“A small number of administrative positions have gone to alternating schedules or working from home, but since 87% of our employees are in Public Safety, Public Works, or Community Development, most employees are out on the streets working in essential positions,” said Sikeston city manager Jonathan Douglass. “Employees who are interacting with the public out on the street (such as building inspectors) are doing the best they can to practice social distancing.”
Douglass added employees that typically work in teams (such as skilled workers in the street department) have been assigned to smaller teams and work with the same teams every day in order to minimize exposure to other employees.
New Madrid City Manager Richard McGill said that has also been the approach in New Madrid in order to protect entire departments from getting the virus.
“I want all of my employees safe and healthy,” McGill said. “If that means that we will be overly cautious, that’s what we will do.”
While everyone has been affected by the pandemic, and stay-at-home orders have been issued by the governor, Scott County and Sikeston, the public has expressed their concern to city officials.
“Prior to issuing the stay-at-home order, nearly all of the phone calls I received were from people asking the city to do something to enforce social distancing and limits on gathering locally, since the state had not done anything at that time,” Douglass said. “Since the stay-at-home orders have been given, most calls I have received have just been questions about whether a business is essential. And most of those calls have been business owners themselves trying to decide whether to close down entirely. I think most people are making good-faith efforts to comply with the stay-at-home orders.”
Douglass said while people complain that people are doing too much and not changing their behavior, he has noticed a decrease in the amount of traffic and activity in Sikeston.
“I do think people have curtailed their non-essential activities,” he added.
While the number of positive COVID-19 cases are low in New Madrid County, nine as of Tuesday morning, McGill said citizens are concerned about those who have been infected.
“There’s also fear among many that they may also be infected, but I see people taking the necessary precautions when I’m out in the community,” McGill said. “People are just showing they care, whether it is about those who may be infected or for those who have temporarily lost income due to their employer closing.”
New Madrid, like other communities, has had some restaurants completely close while others have adjusted to drive-thru or takeout options only. Some small businesses not deemed essential have also temporarily closed.
“It’s difficult to see because the statistics show that the longer this pandemic lasts, the less likely all of these businesses will re-open,” McGill said. “Small business is the backbone of a local community. These small business owners and their employees are all local citizens, and it’s difficult to see them not earning what they typically do especially as their personal expenses don’t change.”
But the closing and adjusting of businesses will also have a financial impact on cities and their governments.
Douglass said Sikeston has not felt the financial impact yet because revenues typically run a few months behind. Sales taxes collected in April won’t be received until late June, so there is a delayed effect.
“I expect that later this summer the city will start to see the financial impact,” Douglass said. “I don’t have a good way to predict what the impact will be, but I expect we will see a drop in sales tax collections. I know that some residents have lost jobs or had hours cut, and that means some spending will be curtailed.”
Neither Sikeston nor New Madrid has had to dig into reserves and both hope that is something each city will be able to avoid.
“I hope that it doesn’t come to that, but that is one reason we have reserves, so we can continue to operate essential services such as police and fire protection even if revenues temporarily decrease or stop,” Douglass said. “Before we dip into reserves, though, we would cut spending by not filling open positions or delaying improvement projects.”
The lack of revenue could possibly impact future budgets as well. Douglass said along with the uncertainty of when businesses will open back up, people be allowed back in churches and nursing homes, the budget is just as uncertain.
“Sales taxes this year so far are up 1% compared to last year,” Douglass said. “For next year’s budget I am currently projecting no increase, and I’m going to be very conservative about what we plan to spend. If sales taxes over the next few months start to drop off, we will have to make mid-year adjustments to our spending plans, just like families that are impacted by paychecks that may be reduced or lost.”
While the budgets may be impacted, McGill does sees a positive when the pandemic comes to an end.
“I know our citizens will support our local businesses even more than they typically do once this is over,” McGill said. “The sense of community here is amazing.”