COUNTY NEWS
Los Alamos County offices will begin the process of opening customer service windows and lobbies on Tuesday, June 1, as the community continues to be in Turquoise status with a high vaccination rate of over 76%. The majority of County employees who had been assigned remote work status at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 have returned to offices and normal operating hours are in effect this week. Interior suite doors that have been previously closed to the public to limit pedestrian traffic within lobbies will be open as of June 1.
County Manager Harry Burgess said that the decision to return to a more normal workday and office staffing was made with continued focus on COVID Safe Practices that are consistent with the Governor’s Public Health Order, set to expire this month unless the Governor takes further action.
“While we are pleased to welcome back employees to the workplace, we will continue to be cautious with our directional signage and six feet of spacing, along with limiting the number of customers in lobbies that may have space constraints,” Burgess said, adding that some suites may still have other restrictions within their spaces, based upon input from supervisors and staff.
“This is the next step of many steps that we plan to take over the next few months to re-open more services and interactions to the public,” he said, “We will continue to monitor guidance from the State Department of Health and respond accordingly; however, this is a positive step forward and I am pleased that we are able to re-open in a safe, professional manner. Our employees have done an outstanding job these past 14 months in keeping our day-to-day services up and running, and I would ask for the community’s continued patience and support as we take the next steps to re-populate our buildings.”
The Council will be in person in Council Chambers for their June 8 meeting; however, the public will continue to be able to monitor and provide comments using the Zoom platform until further notice, as attendance inside the Chambers will continue to be limited to a minimum number of Staff and those making presentations.