Dawn-Euphemia councillors aren’t willing to risk holding in person meetings on a regular basis yet.
The township council decided Tuesday it would continue holding conference calls for regular council meetings for some time yet as a measure to stop the potential spread of COVID-19 in the community.
In September, there have been two people test positive with the virus in Lambton however the number of daily cases in the province jumped 20 per cent on the long weekend. Most of those cases were in Toronto, Peel and Ottawa.
But Mayor Al Broad was among those not comfortable yet with getting together in person.
“We’ve come this far, I don’t want to put council or staff or the firefighters (if the fire hall was used for meetings) at risk,” he told councillors.
“We should leave it for the time being until we see what happens in the second wave.
“I’d rather be a month too late (to have open council meetings) than a month too early,” Broad added.
The township will hold a meeting in person at the Florence Community Hall Sept. 21 to accommodate a drainage meeting.
Clerk Donna Clermont says there is plenty of room to hold a meeting with up to 50 people – the provincial maximum for indoor events.
Clermont suggested there would be lots of room for social distancing and hand sanitizer and masks would be available.
But Broad questioned the requirement for masks, saying if everyone was able to be distanced, they shouldn’t be required.
“If there is going to be social distancing, why wear a mask…we could make it optional but social distancing is safe…if it is not, why are we doing what we are doing?”
Masks will be optional at the open meeting however regular meetings will continue by phone until council can gauge whether the restriction can be lifted.
Both Oil Springs and Enniskillen are currently meeting in person.