How Does Snowplowing Fit Into Your Pandemic Planning?

2020 has been an interesting year for everyone across the globe. Now that summer is coming to an end, we’re thinking about how children will be returning to school and planning other fall activities. As we plan, there will also be a continued focus on how to deal with the on-going COVID-19 pandemic and the health considerations that should be followed.

An important thing to consider as we move into the fall is if your city has a snowplowing policy. And if you have one, is it written? If COVID-19 is still a local pandemic during the upcoming winter season, then you need to plan for the worse-case scenario. What will you do if you have a snowstorm and a plow operator out with a COVID-19 quarantine? What if you have two or three out on quarantine? Do you have a contingency plan to get the streets plowed if you are at 50% staffing?

Your city may already have a backup operator in place, while some of you are laughing at 50% saying there is only one person that operates the plow. When working on your plan, some questions to consider include:

• When do you need to start looking at the winter season and planning for these scenarios?
• Is your plan laid out for 14 days or more? Should it be?
• Should you look at mutual aid agreements with neighboring communities, county services, or even private contractors to pick up if the pandemic takes your staff away?
• Is cross-training other staff to plow an option? (I know of building inspectors that plowed snow for public works when they were short staffed!)
• Are there union contracts that need to be reviewed when working with other agencies or departments?
• When was the last time that you reviewed the plan to make sure it will still function as when the plan was first developed?

Having a contingency plan for staff is always a best practice, but this becomes magnified if the pandemic is still around through winter. When you have a policy, you can use that as a guide to make contingency plans in case of an emergency. It’s a baseline to guide staff and can lay out when plowing operations will start, what routes are priority routes, and what gets plowed last.

I developed a snowplow policy many years ago that laid out staff routes with full staff, two-thirds staff, half-staff, and quarter staff. Having this in the policy helps guide staff and administration to what needs to get completed when people are sick, late, stuck in their own driveways, or, now in 2020, possibly in quarantine. Without a written policy, staff may be plowing trails in parks while the priority emergency routes aren’t even opened to traffic.

If you are at full staff its typically easy. What about if you are half-staff, one private contractor, a county plow operator, and the finance clerk? What type of plan can you have for them once they arrive to start plowing and how the operation should flow? Is it going to be flawless? Not likely. But did the priority/emergency routes get opened in a timely fashion, did the priority facilities get plowed next, and so on?

Nothing ever works when you’re scrambling at 2 a.m. for a plow operator and you tell them to just go push the snow when they don’t even know the streets. Have a policy that provides a baseline for operations, allows for flexibility, and plans for staffing shortages.

I know we are all hoping that COVID-19 goes away soon, but what if it’s here through the winter? How will your operations get affected and what plans do you have in place?

Submitted by: Troy Walsh, Loss Control Consultant

Considerations for Wearing Masks and Face Shields During COVID-19

People in Minnesota are now required to wear a face covering in all indoor businesses and public indoor spaces, unless alone. Additionally, workers are required to wear a face covering when working outdoors in situations where social distancing cannot be maintained.

That’s all according to Gov. Walz’s Executive Order 20-81, effective July 25, 2020.

The League of Minnesota Cities team has received many questions about face coverings. Where they need to be worn, what is allowed for face coverings, and when does a face shield become an option over a face mask? The Centers for Disease Control and Infection (CDC) and the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) provide best practice guidance and are great resources for any COVID-19 pandemic questions you may have.  We follow the CDC and MDH guidance on wearing of face masks and the option of a face shield.  

What CDC and MDH say about face shields
The MDH has provided face covering requirements and recommendations under the Executive Order. 

• What they say: It is not known whether face shields (a clear plastic barrier that covers the face) provide the same source control for droplets as face masks, but they may be an option in situations where wearing a face mask is problematic. For optimal protection, the shield should extend below the chin and to the ears, and there should be no exposed gap between the forehead and the shield's headpiece.

The CDC has also provided considerations for wearing masks.

• What they say: It is not known if face shields provide any benefit as source control to protect others from the spray of respiratory particles. CDC does not recommend use of face shields for normal everyday activities or as a substitute for masks. Some people may choose to use a face shield, in addition to a mask, when sustained close contact with other people is expected. If face shields are used without a mask, they should wrap around the sides of the wearer’s face and extend to below the chin. Disposable face shields should only be worn for a single use. Reusable face shields should be cleaned and disinfected after each use.

City of Cologne

Face shield protection study
Here’s what we know and what we don’t about how face shields can protect us from contracting the coronavirus: Researchers put a face shield on a head form encasing a breathing machine and placed it a few feet from another head form spewing droplets of influenza. They measured how much influenza made it behind the face shield, into the mouth of the head form, and down the breathing machine. The face shield did a good job of blocking the cough at first, catching the big droplets. But as the minutes went on, smaller droplets — aerosols — made their way behind the shield.

Masks are recommended as a simple barrier to help prevent respiratory droplets from traveling into the air and onto other people when the person wearing the mask coughs, sneezes, talks, or raises their voice. Face shields may not provide as much protection to respiratory droplets but are an option, especially if there are medical issues involved with the wearer.  

Submitted by: Troy Walsh, Loss Control Consultant