With the intention of minimizing a disruption in non-essential services, the City began testing a remote work plan, for City Hall, starting the morning of Friday, March 13th. In doing so, non-essential employees will not report to work as usual. Many will work from home via telecommuting type processes. In operating this way, regular business with citizen-customers will not be conducted at City Hall, but rather by telephone or computer with the exception of work such as bill payments that can be conducted through the drive thru window. At a minimum, this test will run through the end of the business day on Monday March 16th, 2020 and may remain in place for an indefinite period of time depending upon the need for additional testing or due to updates relating to the increased spreading of the corona virus. Implementing this initial test period at City Hall will allow us to identify any deficiencies in the service delivery process should the modified work plan become necessary and for an extended period of time.

Additionally, Covington Municipal Court proceedings have been suspended or postponed for an unspecified period of time. However, court employees will be working off-site and anyone needing to contact them may do so by telephone at 770-385-2193 or 770-385-2173. Court Services can also be contacted by email at SFinnie@cityofcovington.org or KKey@cityofcovington.org Our primary goal with implementing these and/or other new work processes and how long they remain in place is to help improve the health and safety of our citizen-customers and our employees.

Citizens can be certain that public safety and emergency services provided to them by the City of Covington will continue to be delivered to them adequately and effectively.

We ask that our citizens and customers within the community remain calm and not panic. We are all in this situation together. Like all of us at the City of Covington, I encourage everyone to stay informed with alerts from both the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) at www.CDC.gov and the Georgia Department of Public Health at www.DPH.Georgia.gov. Information can be accessed via their individual websites and we also have those posted at the City of Covington website as well, which is www.cityofcovington.org. Likewise stay abreast of updates and changing conditions by watching or listening to local, state, and national news broadcasts.

As we receive new alerts or updates or if our operating conditions change at the City of Covington, we will post those notices to our website and social media pages for your access.

Staying informed and following the directions of our healthcare agencies and professionals is a necessary part of helping us all to stay as safe as we can while we weather this critical health situation.

Even recently as Governor Brian Kemp declared a state public healthcare emergency for the State of Georgia, he again discussed that social distancing will help with stopping the spread of this virus. He further called for and encouraged policies and actions that will limit social contact and in particular those where large groups of people would congregate. The actions already taken by the City of Covington and as well as plans likely to be implemented in the near future are all rooted in the principles suggested by Governor Kemp and aimed at limiting social contact whenever and wherever appropriate and for as long as possible to help reduce the spread of this fast paced virus. Again, the actions taken by the City of Covington are being put in place because we believe it will help to protect our citizen-customers and employees.

Recently, President Donald Trump called for a National Day of Prayer, not for just our country, but for the world. I also encourage each of you to pray for one another locally, here in Covington, Newton County, our state, our country and around the world. As already stated, we are all in this together. May God Bless Us All.

Sincerely,

Steve Horton
Mayor, City of Covington

Return to list.