“It all comes back to the same thing,” Boyd President Randy Setzer said of COVID-19. “You can’t overwhelm the hospitals.” Setzer is employed outside the village within the healthcare field, and reported that hospitals were “very busy” at the present time. Among the measures to prevent overwhelming the hospitals has been temporary quarantine of those with milder cases or just known exposure to the coronavirus, so that spread can be checked and precious hospital beds conserved for those with more serious attacks of the illness.

But what do you do as a local government about lost work hours, if a large percentage of the local police force—which can mean just two or else three in a small town—are either confirmed to have COVID themselves or need to undergo a mandatory quarantine period because they were exposed to somebody with the dreaded illness? This question was faced recently by the Boyd and Cadott Police Departments, after Boyd officer Tucker Tiege and two colleagues in nearby Cadott, Wisconsin were reportedly placed on temporary leave at home as a precaution against the spread of the dreaded disease. Quarantine does not necessarily mean that someone has had the illness but that they have had a known exposure to it and are isolated to protect others during the time of possible transmission.

In this vein then, should pay be granted for time off from duty prior to potential re-imbursement through state or federal COVIDcost programs? As for Boyd, it was decided unanimously by the Village Board that officers should receive pay, meaning that Officer Tiege will get his missed pay period due to unforeseen need for quarantine and be ready to assist Boyd residents as needed when his time in restricted movement is over. As to COVID and how it relates to the Stanley Police Department’s operations, City police chief Lance Weiland had this to say when reached for comment.

“As it relates to your COVID question, it really just comes down to trying to be as careful as we can and following guidelines as set by CDC and our local health department,” he wrote via email. “When we have multiple staff working in the same office space we work to ensure that we are not occupying the same vicinity if at all possible, and if we are, we are wearing masks and cleaning surfaces regularly to reduce exposure risks as best as we can. Ultimately as an emergency services provider there really is only so much that you can do to protect yourselves and those you may come in contact with. We are doing everything in our power to do things the right way in order to ensure that we have the staffing to readily be available to serve the needs of our community, whenever and wherever that might be.” Regarding the winter months to come and how it might affect relations within the community, Weiland had the following to make note of.

“We do want the public to realize and understand that we may ask to speak with them outside of their residence or in an open air environment for example as a safety measure for everyone,” he made known. “With colder weather in our midst however those opportunities may be fewer and further in-between but we ask that everyone be understanding as we all work together to navigate these challenging times and are all hopefully working together to ensure the health and safety of the public as well as our employees is priority at this time.”