Mar 30, 2020

City coping with COVID-19

Posted Mar 30, 2020 10:10 PM

By Dewey Terrill

JC Post

Junction City Manager Allen Dinkel believes so far the City is coping well during the COVID-19 crisis. "Of course it's unknown territory. We've never had anything like this but I think as a community we're starting to move through it and we will continue on that path."

Dinkel touched on a variety of issues during a JC Post interview.  Businesses are being impacted. He noted some businesses that have to close due to the stay at home orders will take a hit. "Will there be enough stimulus money from the government to help them out? I think that's to be seen, and can they move forward, can some of the small businesses that were doing okay, can they survive during this time period? Dinkel added that "only time will tell."

The city manager has tracking local sales tax revenues, which should show good collections through April and May. "I think from June on we'll see what happens. Again I think the key issue is going to be how long is it going to be. ? Dinkel noted as full as grocery stores have been during the last week will help collections, but will it be long term is an unknown factor at this point.

Dinkel feels city employees are holding up well this time. There have not been any furloughs. "So far we have work to do. Closed the City office for a little over a week now but they're still taking mail yet and I know the admin staff is super busy listening to a lot of seminars and getting direction where we need to go and working on that." Dinkel noted that parks employees are essential. "When this all ends the parks are just going to be slammed with people being there from being cooped up for a long time. We want to have everything ready to go."

Dinkel noted that City offices were going to be closed to April 5th, but he thought that would be extended another two weeks to "coincide with the Governor's advisory. Then we'll see what happens after that." The city manager thought much of the focus would be to keep an eye on what is occurring in the COVID-19 cases in Kansas.