Today Oregon Governor Kate Brown issued a state-wide Shelter-In-Place, establishing legally enforceable restrictions on public activity. Cowlitz County officials are preparing for Governor Jay Inslee to announce similar action at his press conference that will be taking place tonight at 5:30pm. Senior Staff continues to monitor and stay up-to-date on federal, state and county-wide changes involving COVID-19. We have preemptively taken action to protect our essential services by preparing for the possibility of a state-wide shelter-in-place, because of this, we are well prepared to continue to provide reliable electricity through a mandated Shelter-In-Place. Since the beginning of our COVID-19 preparations, we have put protecting our most important assets, our employees, as our top priority.
A Shelter-In-Place includes the following:
- Stay home unless getting food, gas or other essentials, or for medical reasons.
- Health professionals, police, firefighters and other essential service providers are still expected to go to work. And of course, grocery store clerks and gas station attendants are working, too.
- The PUD is an essential critical infrastructure and employees will be expected to support business continuity as necessary. Our customers need reliable power now more than ever. Please contact your supervisor if you are unclear of your District role or schedule during the possibility of a declaration of a Shelter In Place.
- Going outside for a walk or exercise is allowed, and even encouraged but people are asked to keep their distance from others.
Key Points to keep in mind:
- If Governor Inslee orders Shelter in Place, or it may be referred to as NPI-12, then the PUD will correspondingly trigger its Pandemic Leave, which is more fully described in the Supplemental and Pandemic Leave Authorization shared with you this past week.
- In short, non-essential employees are to remain at their primary residence, ready to work and fit for service, while essential employees may be required to report to work. While on Pandemic Leave employees will be paid their regular wages, on Paid Administrative Leave status or regular time if working remotely. While some employees may be at home initially, all employees need to be prepared to report to work if called in by your supervisor.
- We will be implementing our TFCC Communications that will send a text message to all employees notifying of any important changes.
- All supervisors have a phone contact list to get in touch with employees. Please make sure you have your supervisor’s contact information in case you need to reach out.
- If you have any questions about Pandemic Leave, your work schedule, or the newly implemented timesheet coding, please reach out to your supervisor.
- The Cowlitz PUD Board of Commissioner’s Meeting, scheduled for Tomorrow, March 24th at 2pm has been canceled.
We continue to stress the importance of social distancing and especially want to thank all of you for working towards our goals for keeping the workplace safe.
Notes below from today’s County/City meeting:
County Health and Human Services
- 3 cases now in Cowlitz County; no additional confirmed cases known at this point
Cowlitz PUD Blog 