Newbury employees will work partially remote, schools may suspend indoor sports – The Daily News of Newburyport

NEWBURY As COVID-19 cases continue to rise, town employees will return to a remote work rotation schedule and the Triton Regional School Districtwill consider suspendingall indoor sporting activities until further notice.

At a Select Board meeting Tuesday night,Newbury police Chief John Lucey shared these updates, which were decided by the town's COVID-19 Unified Command Team.

As of Tuesday, there had been 34 new cases over the previous 14 days,he said.

"From Nov. 19 to Dec. 3, there's been 796 tests administered in Newbury and of those tests, 27 positive cases have been found, which is a 3.39% positive rate," Lucey said.

The flexible remote rotation schedule at Town Hall will begin on Dec. 14 at 8 a.m.

"We had a lot of discussions in light of the second surge," Town Administrator Tracy Blais said. "We're going to try to limit exposures as much as possible while continuing to serve the residents of Newbury in the most effective manner that we can. The flexible work policy will become effective on Dec. 14."

Town employees will rotate between working in the office and working remotely.

"The town staff will be scheduled office times, as well as remote work times," Blais said. "So, we're going to do a similar model as to what we did last March, so that one office will physically be in the building on each floor, one person will be in the library and one person will be in the Council On Aging. We will rotate the personnel in and out of the building."

Additionally, Lucey said he directed Triton Regional School District Superintendent Brian Forget "to suspend all indoor organized sporting activities" at both the middle school and the high school, as well as Newbury Elementary School until further notice.

"That was a difficult decision, as you can imagine," he said. "There was a lot of thought, a lot of processing."

In a follow-up statement, Triton athletic director Tim Alberts said the request to suspend indoor sporting activities will be discussed at the School Committee meeting on Wednesday.

"A decision has not been made yet," he said. "Ive been told the suspension of indoor activities applies to any facilities within the Town of Newbury."

Lucey said the district athletics department put together a "comprehensive, very well thought out plan to try to mitigate, as best as possible, a safe environment for the participants of indoor sports."

With basketball especially, Lucey said there were concerns about how much contact would be involved with the sport.

"In light of the statistics and the direction the state is going in, it seems like an unnecessary risk to allow that," he said.

"We, as the COVID-19 Unified Command Team, will continue to closely monitor situations and adjust Newbury's response to this emergency, solely in what we feel is in the best interest of public health for the town," Lucey said.

G. Mello Disposal Corp. recently shut down the town's transfer station on Boston Road due to staffing issues brought on by precautionary COVID-19 measures.

Blais said there are staff members in quarantine following Thanksgiving, which caused the transfer station to be understaffed.

Until further notice, Newbury residents may use the transfer station at 203 East Main Street on Route 133 in Georgetown and pay the same fees. The Georgetown transfer station is open from Monday to Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and from Friday to Sunday, 7:30 a.m. to noon.

For more information, visit http://www.mellodisposal.com/transfer-station.

"Understanding that this does create an inconvenience for some people, we're very appreciative that the residents are willing to adapt in the face of COVID," Blais said.

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Newbury employees will work partially remote, schools may suspend indoor sports - The Daily News of Newburyport