Township business continues in South Fayette despite lockdown
MORGAN – South Fayette Township has only received five or six calls so far on a helpline it established to help residents in need during the coronavirus lockdown, township manager John Barrett said during an online meeting of the township’s board of commissioners Wednesday night.
But calls have also come in to the main number at the township office, Barrett added, and “we are taking a lot of calls about where people can go to get certain types of assistance. … We as a township are committed to doing everything to help our residents.”
Though the coronavirus has brought most of the world to a halt, Barrett told commissioners that much of the everyday work of the township is continuing. Permits are being issued for building “to the extent that the activity is permitted,” he said, and code enforcement work is also being carried out “to make sure we don’t have any issues with property maintenance.”
“We’re continuing business as usual, though it’s not in the way we usually do business,” said Commissioner Gwen Rodi.
John Phoennik, the township’s police chief, said calls to his department had diminished significantly over the last month, and officers were having their temperature taken at the beginning of each shift. Any officer registering a temperature above 100.4 degrees will be sent home, Phoennik said.
Barrett said the township is continuing to do due diligence on a 10-acre site on Hickory Grade Road where it hopes to build new administrative and police offices.