County buildings closed until Aug. 3 amid virus concerns

Concerned about spread stemming from two employees and a judge infected with coronavirus, Luzerne County Manager C. David Pedri closed all county facilities at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.

County Court of Common Pleas President Judge Michael T. Vough also shut down the court system, and both actions remain in effect until Aug. 3.

Workers have been on edge since two positive tests were disclosed — a sheriff’s deputy on Friday and Court of Common Pleas Judge William H. Amesbury on Saturday.

Pedri said he worked with Vough on a shutdown plan Wednesday immediately after learning a third person in the county government workforce had received a positive coronavirus test result. This worker — another sheriff deputy — was in close contact with the first deputy and has been in quarantine since Friday, Pedri said.

Workers in quarantine

Approximately 12 sheriff’s office workers are now in quarantine for 14 days pending test results due to their potential exposure identified through contact tracing, Pedri said. He emphasized these workers are not showing symptoms and have not yet received test results showing whether they are positive or negative.

Pedri said he is closing all facilities “in order to limit further exposure to the virus.”

All employees able to work remotely must do so starting Thursday, Pedri said. For example, workers will continue processing doe licenses even though the office is closed.

As before, during the initial pandemic closure, access to non-essential county services will be limited.

Remote work does not apply to county departments subject to state-mandated staffing requirements or those that have been designated as essential, including 911, emergency management, road/bridge, security, the prison, building/grounds, the boiler plant, sheriff’s office and human service agencies, Pedri said.

After learning of the first sheriff deputy case Friday, the county had cleaned areas of the courthouse and nearby annex building in Wilkes-Barre that had been visited by that worker, but operations were kept open.

Union concerns

AFSCME union representative Paula Schnelly has questioned the extent of sanitizing at the courthouse and annex, saying she believes those buildings also should have been shut down like Penn Place to ensure no surfaces were missed.

Penn Place, which is the only county government building where Amesbury was present last week, was closed Monday for cleaning but reopened Tuesday. Amesbury’s staff has been on quarantine along with county Judge Fred A. Pierantoni III, who golfed with Amesbury the day before Amesbury received his results.

Schnelly said she has been contacted by several workers at both the courthouse and Penn Place now exhibiting coronavirus symptoms. These workers are quarantining and seeking testing, she said.

“I can tell you the employees are terrified right now. It’s not good,” Schnelly said Wednesday.

Vough’s order

According to county Court of Common Pleas President Judge Michael T. Vough’s order:

The court closure is necessary to address the emergency situations due to the number of sheriff deputies subject to quarantine and to protect the health and welfare of the public, litigants and employees “to the extent possible.”

Court proceedings will be postponed to a later date except for those that “directly impact the health, safety, security, welfare or incarceration of an individual.”

Among the matters that will proceed: protection-from-abuse hearings, bail postings, preliminary arraignments, warrant lifting hearings, guardianships, proceedings involving mental health and civil injunction, Gagnon 1 hearings for incarcerated defendants (by video conference) and specialty court proceedings.

Family court will continue addressing emergency matters and hold pressing hearings and conferences by telephone conference or another alternate measure if they cannot be postponed.

The domestic relations and adult probation and parole departments will handle matters by telephone.

All jury trails are postponed pending further court notice.

Dependency and delinquency proceedings requiring immediate judicial review or adjudication will be promptly heard by the assigned judge, and all other matters will be reviewed individually.

Pedri advised the public to check www.luzernecounty.org for instructions on accessing services in each office.