KEARNEY, Neb. – (KGFW) Kearney City Manager Mike Morgan took on the topic of masks in the community. Morgan shared the city council will be discussing them at their next meeting.
“I think the city of Kearney and city council supports CDC guidelines to be followed. However I think as a group they would just like to do that through encouragement and cooperation with the public. Overall this is probably the most effective measure to begin with. I know more will be discussed at their next council meeting with respect to masks but probably just in the area of encouragement.”
It’s been important for Morgan to continue providing support for business owners and the general community while handling COVID-19.
“That’s the policy direction of the council and Two Rivers Public Health Department, following guidelines for masks without needing a mandate. For businesses, our job is to try to encourage and support and provide the materials to businesses. Public education will continue doing that. Our responsibility is to ensure the public gets access to our services and we continue to make sure that happens.”
Being prepared prior to having confirmed cases has helped City of Kearney employees respond to COVID-19 but getting information to the public has been difficult.
“We’ve been able to handle positive cases well and we took a lot of preemptive measures early on with employees, they have fully cooperated and we’re proud of that. The difficult thing for citizens is that numbers are just so hard to determine what they mean. A lot of ratios, percentages and different age groups. So we also look at hospital status and where people are at. Of course there are also way more tests than there was several months ago.”
City Manager believes the city has already taken the necessary steps with following guidelines to minimize virus spread.
