By Carl Blankenship
carl.blankenship@salisburypost.com

GRANITE QUARRY — COVID-19 has been on the agenda for every municipality in Rowan County as the pandemic continues to affect the nation. Granite Quarry has already begun taking precautions by eliminating foot traffic in town hall and began exploring more precautions on Monday.

Granite Quarry’s Board of Aldermen met mostly remotely. The only two board members who attended the meeting in person were Mayor Bill Feather and alderman John Linker. Other members connected via the application GoToMeeting.

The discussion almost immediately dove into whether employees who could work from home should continue working in the office. Several aldermen and the mayor voiced concern over the potential for the respiratory infection to spread in the office and said they wanted to keep staff safe.

“People are not doing what they are supposed to do, and that scares me to death,” said Alderman Jim Constantino, noting his concern about town employees bringing the disease home after being exposed at the office.

Alderman Doug Shelton said he would support any reasonable effort to minimize the amount of face-to-face contact in the office and defer to administration on the best steps to take.

The town’s joint police department with Faith and its fire department will continue with normal operations.

The board approved entering a contract with the company LogMeIn, which owns GoToMeeting, to begin a business plan account with the company for $10 a month on an annual basis, which was lowered from $16 a month. The plan gives the town increased limits on webcams and participants as well as a dial-in line among other benefits. The participant limit on the plan is 250.

The board also unanimously approved measures to further its 2020 capital streets project. The board approved a resolution authorizing Town Manager Larry Smith to file an application for the project, a financing contract with F&M Bank and “other actions not inconsistent with the Resolution for the 2020 Capital Streets Improvement Project.”

The project will cost $390,750 and is set to pave or patch sections of streets according to a priority list.

The board also approved grading and fence work for the town’s quarry property so it can become a leaf and limb facility at a cost of $25,000.

There was concern over whether the property was zoned correctly for the site, but the consensus from administration was the project could continue while the town sorts out any zoning issues.