Lakewood Office to Reopen May 11, 2020
I realize our Governor is opening up additional activities across our state. As your pastor, I urge caution and wisdom for the next several weeks.
We have been addressing the COVID-19 challenge for well over eight weeks. Each Monday, and often an additional time or two each week, the Executive Staff and I meet to monitor the most current information and medical data available.
I am weighing and evaluating Lakewood’s policies as carefully and wisely as possible. I want so very much for us to be together again, but I cannot allow the weariness that we all feel and the excitement of finally coming back together to cloud my judgment.
Lakewood will continue to meet online only through May 31. This means Lakewood will not hold any in person activities, on or off our campus, through May 31. (Continual evaluation will be ongoing.)
However, the Lakewood Office will be reopening to STAFF ONLY on May 11, 2020. (No guests, no appointments). Please assist us in maintaining a safe environment for our staff by honoring our NO VISITOR policy.
In order to provide our Custodial Staff adequate time to prepare the office, our office start time will be 9:00 am until further notice.
We have lots of details and new procedures to implement before we engage in corporate “in-person” worship on our campus. This first step of reopening our office will give us time to address and run through the many new procedures that COVID-19 is requiring.
Please read the following information carefully. We will strictly follow these guidelines, procedures and staff responsibilities.
We will continue and practice social distancing and seek to adhere to all other CDC instructions.
Custodial staff shall report for work and begin cleaning all staff work areas and sanitize restrooms on Thursday and Friday, May 7 and 8 respectively.
The Lakewood Campus will still be closed to meetings, gatherings, Bible Studies, etc.
Package deliveries to the office will continue to be transferred outside the office. Office personnel shall meet delivery folks outside.
Special Instructions for Lakewood Staff:
It is expected that each employee of Lakewood reporting to work shall take their temperature each morning before leaving home. (Program supervisors are responsible for ensuring this is occurring with their respective staff teams.) If anyone has a temperature over 100.4, do not report to the office. Additionally, if you’re temperature is above 99.6, but less than 100.4, wait one hour and retake. Let your supervisor know of your late arrival.
If you are exhibiting a cough, excessive sneezing, shortness of breath, or any flu like symptoms, please do not report to work. Rather, seek medical consultation as soon as possible.
I would prefer that no staff children be on campus or in staff offices until further notice. If this is a hardship on staff members, additional time may be allowed for staff to develop child care plans. However, if staff children must be on campus for brief times, they should remain IN THE OFFICE of their parent and under the parent’s direct supervision. Please refrain from having children roam the building or office areas. It is the parent’s responsibility to clean the areas that children utilize.
Additional Expectations:
- Each staff shall have available a mask and use it if incidental contact within the office requires you to be less than 6 feet from anyone. (If you don’t have one, contact your supervisor.)
- There should be NO MORE than 3 persons AT A TIME in common Lakewood office work area, including the Lakewood office copy room, Kids Cove resource room, student work area, etc.
- It is advised that staff use gloves in retrieving, opening and/or distributing USPS mail. If you need gloves contact Don or Jeff.
- Until further notice we will not have a common food area within the office. If you desire to share food with staff members, please deliver to individual staff in secure packaging. It is preferred that you would secure an individual mini refrigerator for your office. When using coffee carafe, please wipe down the handle before and after each use.
Building Sanitization and Cleanliness:
Associate Pastor Don Ormsbee will be directly responsible for coordinating and developing cleaning and sanitization practices and schedules with Jeff Farr, Building Superintendent.
The Associate Pastor will report regularly to the Senior Pastor the progress and efforts of the custodial staff as they carry out their duties, suggesting and implementing procedures and policies to provide for a safe work environment.
I want to ensure the Lakewood Staff that I have confidence in our Associate Pastor and Building Superintendent. They are well informed of CDC cleanliness and sanitation standards as well as to my expectations of building cleanliness.
Specific Assignments:
• All designated restrooms shall be sanitized at least 3 times per workday (suggestion 9:00 am, 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm) Monday-Friday as well as inspected regularly throughout the day.
Restroom cleaning schedules will be posted in each restroom and will be updated after each cleaning and inspection.
Additionally, our custodial staff shall routinely, throughout the day, clean and sanitize common touch areas (copy room, door handles, table tops, etc.)
Moreover, I have directed Don and Jeff to investigate replacement of air filters and to contact vendors to explore additional ventilation improvements we might consider.
• Staff is required to maintain sanitized and clean work spaces. Expectation is that several times during the work day each staff member will wipe down and sanitize personal work areas.
• Please wash your hands regularly during the day. I am asking that each time you enter the office from outside the building that you wash your hands.
• Jeff Farr will locate Lysol and other supplies for staff use at designated areas.
• Existing water fountains on campus will be disabled until further notice.
• Please confer with fellow staff members from the door area of each office. If inter-office meetings are required, maintain a 6-foot separation in well-ventilated areas, or consider going outside. You may use the Senior Pastor’s courtyard and/or the adult choir room or use technology to have meetings with other staff. Please communicate with Jeff the rooms and spaces you use other than your personal office area.
• Notify your supervisor if you are traveling to a high risk area of the State or US. (For instance: NYC, New Orleans, etc.)
• If you know that you been exposed to COVID-19 and/or have been in the company of persons who have tested positive, do not report to the office. You must receive clearance from your immediate supervisor before returning.
• If during the day should you feel an area is not properly sanitized or needs attention, contact Don or Jeff immediately.
If after reviewing these guidelines you have concerns about working from the office, or have special circumstances that would require you to avoid working from the office, please speak personally with Dr. Tom.
Keep in mind, the Governor’s executive order mandates that certain Georgians are to remain sheltered in place until June 12, 2020. This includes people who are 65 years of age and older and those considered medically fragile. Medically fragile Georgians include:
- People 65 years of age or older
- People living in a nursing home or long-term care facility
- People with chronic lung disease
- People with moderate to severe asthma
- People with severe heart disease
- People who are immunocompromised
- People with class III or severe obesity
- People with diabetes, liver disease, or chronic kidney disease undergoing dialysis
Additionally, while the Governor has eased the restrictions of the shelter in place order, Georgia’s large gatherings ban still remains in effect. Per his order, businesses, establishments, corporations, organizations, and local governments are prohibited from having more than ten people gather in a single location unless there is at least six feet between each person.
COVID SELF ASSESSMENT TO PREVENT THE SPREAD
If you are experiencing any of the following symptoms you are to leave the site immediately and seek medical advice:
- Fever (100f or greater) or having a sense of a fever;
- New cough that you cannot attribute to another known health condition;
- New shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, or chest discomfort that you cannot attribute to another known health condition;
- New sore throat, headache, dizziness, or loss of taste or sense of smell that you cannot attribute to another known health condition;
- New vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite, which you cannot contribute to another known health condition.