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As of the state health department’s daily update at 11:30 a.m. Friday, no cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed in Kingfisher County.

But of the 49 cases confirmed in the state as of that time, two were in Canadian County and one in Logan County.

After schools were ordered closed by the state board of education through April 6, governing bodies at all levels scrambled to take their own emergency preventative measures, while businesses, churches and other organizations instituted similar precautions to reduce the chances of a community outbreak.

This edition contains a compilation of the latest news as of our 2 p.m. Friday deadline, but the situation is so broad-based and so rapidly evolving that the most recent updates will continue to be posted on the Times & Free Press Facebook page.

CITY OF KINGFISHER

Due to the rapidly evolving coronavirus response at all levels of government, much of the emergency declaration adopted Wednesday by unanimous vote of Kingfisher City Commission had already been superseded at press time Friday by federal legislation and local concerns.

Mayor Steve Richards and commissioners Roxie Alexander, Tammy Mueggenborg, Wendell Prim and Bill Tucker all voted to declare a state of emergency in a comprehensive declaration recommended by City Manager Dave Slezickey.

The declaration’s provisions are effective through April 6 but could be extended by another vote if necessary.

The declaration closed three city facilities immediately, including the Vernie Snow Aquatic Center, Kingfisher Memorial Library and the Senior Citizen Center, and gave Slezickey the ongoing authority to “limit access to, or close any and all city facilities, including City Hall, if it is necessary for the protection of the public and employees.”

By Friday, Slezickey announced that City Hall would be closed to foot traffic, while employees inside will continue to conduct business over the phone and through the drive-through window in the rear.

Slezickey said Friday morning that in-person traffic at City Hall had “immensely decreased this week.

“A majority of our operational needs can be sustained through the drive through as opposed to over the counter,” he said. “We will accommodate all other needs that can’t be facilitated through the drive through by scheduling appointments with staff.

“We feel the need to mitigate risk so we can continue to provide critical core services to our community.”

Protecting Employees

The city’s disaster declaration also included provisions to provide for employee leave which were superseded to a certain extent by federal emergency legislation signed into law last week.

Among other things, the law requires up to 80 hours of paid sick leave for employees who are:

• Diagnosed with COVID-19, self-isolating or obtaining a diagnosis or care for COVID-19 symptoms;

•Under quarantine to comply with an official order or recommendation because of COVID-19 exposure or symptoms;

• Providing care to a COVID-19-diagnosed individual or an individual seeking a diagnosis or care for symptoms of COVID-19, or

• Caring for an individual affected by a school or other care facility closing.

Part-time employees can be granted paid leave under the same circumstances proportionate to the average amount of hours they work, under the new federal law.

The city’s declaration goes further in liberalizing the city’s leave policy to include “indirect” impacts from coronavirus, including any employees who are furloughed as a result of reductions in service.

Provisions include:

•Full-time employees who must miss work can use accrued leave or be advanced leave time if their absences exceed accrued leave.

•Part-time employees ineligible for leave accrual who must miss work will be granted paid leave equal to their average hours worked per pay period over the last six months.

•The city can buy back accrued leave from employees whose spouse is displaced due to direct or indirect impacts from the coronavirus.

Employees who use their allotted sick leave time can be advanced leave time if their coronavirus-related absences continue, under the emergency proclamation.

Facility Closures

Commissioners voted Wednesday to immediately close the Senior Citizen Center, aquatic center and library, all of which tend to draw larger groups than the 10 or fewer currently recommended to help combat the spread of the virus.

Slezickey said Meals on Wheels, which operates out of the Senior Citizen Center, won’t be affected.

Slezickey said the recommendations to close the city facilities were not made lightly, since the pool and library both provide outlets for students currently unable to attend school and the Senior Citizen Center is a source of social interaction for the city’s elderly population.

“Originally, the guidance we were getting was that heated pools and hot tubs were not conducive to the spread of the virus, but the CDC has since updated their position regarding that and we’re seeing a lot of communities closing pools and water features,” Slezickey said.

He said discussions about limiting access to the library so that students could still utilize the computers and internet service did not result in a plan that would not create logjams of students either inside the library or outside waiting to come in that would violate the 10-person recommendation.

“I almost did not include the Senior Citizen Center in the closure but since we’re talking about our most vulnerable population utilizing it, I felt like they needed to be included,” he said.

Election Postponed

The declaration also contains a provision moving the April 7 elections for the half-cent capital improvement sales tax and for the offices of mayor and commissioner to June 30.

An emergency declaration by the State Election Board authorized postponing the election, upon adoption of resolutions by each of the governing boards of entities involved in the election (see related story).

By default, the postponement will extend the terms of the current office holders, Richards as mayor and Tammy Mueggenborg as commissioners, until after the winners of the June 30 election can be seated.

Candidates running for those offices will be the same on the June ballot: Roxie Alexander and Joy Ludwig for mayor and Kyle Mecklenburg and Richard Reynolds for commissioner.

Parks Remain Open

The city’s parks and other properties will remain open to individual and family use, but large organized gatherings or activities will be prohibited.

Organized gatherings of 50 or more people anywhere within the city limits are discouraged under the emergency declaration and residents are urged to avoid all gatherings of 10 persons or more.

Restaurants, Bars

All restaurants, bars and other privately-owned gathering places are encouraged to follow Centers for Disease Control Guidelines and encouraged to utilize curbside, delivery or carry out services.

“Our restaurants have already taken proactive, preventive measures and for the most part have shifted away from dine-in service,” Slezickey said. “Other cities who took the step of closing restaurants and bars are now looking at constitutional challenges.”

Likewise, the city did not close gyms, the movie theater or other entertainment venues, but encouraged patrons to “follow guidelines from the CDC” on social distancing, hand-washing and other precautions.

Slezickey said decisions by other cities to close private businesses are being challenged as unlawful.

Utility Relief

The declaration also contains some relief for utility customers.

Slezickey is authorized to suspend utility disconnections due to nonpayment and waive late fees.

In addition to being able to close other city facilities as needed, Slezickey also is authorized to make emergency purchases of goods and services and enter into contracts deemed necessary to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public, with prior approval of the City Commission.

KINGFISHER COUNTY

Based on a unanimous vote by county commissioners at an emergency meeting Wednesday, courthouse employees will continue conducting business as usual, with each elected official determining his or her own staffing.

All three county district shops will be operating as usual as well.

However, all courthouse doors will be locked except for the front (west) doors, where a table will be set up with baskets for each office. Members of the public will be able to drop any items needed to be filed, recorded or otherwise processed in the appropriate baskets.

Associate District Judge Lance Schneiter and Court Clerk Lisa Markus and their staffs will make arrangements for hearings which still must be conducted to handle emergencies or otherwise protect constitutional rights of participants and parties involved will be contacted.

Anyone with questions can still reach any courthouse office by telephone and anyone requiring handicap access for the purpose of dropping off documents can make that request via telephone.

Schneiter issued an order Thursday resetting his court dockets until April or later, in response to an emergency order from the Oklahoma Supreme Court postponing most court hearings.

Virtual Meetings

Kingfisher County’s board of commissioners was the first local body to announce a change in the way public meetings will be conducted in light of emergency amendments adopted Tuesday to the state Open Meetings Act.

Heath Dobrovolny, District 3 county commissioner and vice chairman of the board, said weekly board of commission meetings, held at 9 a.m. each Monday, will be conducted via Facebook Live video feed on the Kingfisher County Commissioners Facebook page.

To prevent the possible spread of coronavirus, only commissioners and other relevant courthouse personnel will attend the meetings in person, beginning next Monday.

The State Legislature passed an emergency measure last Tuesday amending the Open Meeting Act until Nov. 15 or until the termination of the current state emergency declared by Gov. Kevin Stitt, whichever occurs first.

The emergency amendments allow public bodies subject to the Open Meeting Act to hold virtual meetings without also having an in-meeting location.

Prior to the amendments, the act required in-person meetings where the majority of the public body members were physically present.

Meetings are still required to be accessible to the public to either watch or listen to in real time and to participate via questions or comments when appropriate.

Dobrovolny said commissioners will try to answer questions asked via comments on the live video feed on Facebook as well as questions phoned into the commissioner’s office during the meeting.

An agenda will be available each Friday and will be posted on the Kingfisher County Commissioners Facebook page and physically posted on the courthouse door. Both the meeting agendas and live feed will be shared by the Times & Free Press on its Facebook page as a courtesy to its readers.

The newspaper also will continue publishing news articles about the meetings in its Wednesday papers.

Shifting to a virtual meeting became necessary after commissioners voted at an emergency meeting Wednesday to limit public access to the courthouse (see related story).

The Open Meeting Act requirements that commissioners cast public votes on each agenda item and that minutes be kept of each meeting and made available to the public have not been amended.

The amendments also do not require public bodies to adopt a virtual meeting format. Kingfisher City Commission will continue to hold in-person meetings at this time as will the Hennessey Town Board.