Grove City Hall Implements Mask Mandate After 6 Employees Test Positive For COVID-19

A mask mandate is back in the City of Grove. But this time, it’s only for city employees and at City Hall, where several employees tested positive for COVID-19 last week.

City leaders said six employees tested positive for COVID-19 with another employee also in quarantine. They said they’re so short on workers, they’re doing everything they can to protect others from getting sick.

People in Grove haven’t been required to wear a mask inside city buildings since the beginning of June. But that’s changed now, after several city workers came down with COVID-19.

City Manager Bill Keefer said as of now, six employees throughout several departments have tested positive.

“We have limited resources in some departments. If we had a massive COVID outbreak in a couple of them, we would struggle to provide those services,” Keefer said.

So now, all city workers are required to wear masks, along with anyone who goes inside City Hall.

“Neither one of us are worried about it at all,” said Mike Huggins, whose wife works at City Hall.

He said the mandate makes sense.

“I understand, it’s reasonable that if they have had a spike in cases, that maybe they would bring the mask mandate back. That doesn’t seem unreasonable,” Huggins said.

During the pandemic, Keefer said one or two employees would test positive every now and then, but nothing to this extent.

He said the positive cases caught them off guard, so it’s a good reminder to be careful.

“Remember that this is not done, unfortunately, yet and hopefully we can continue to move forward in the right direction,” Keefer said.

The city expects the mandate to be in place for at least the next week or two.