Hamilton approves latest round of federal coronavirus funds: What they will pay

Rules and regulations involving the federal CARES Act funding have shifted several times since Congress passed the $2 trillion legislation in late March. A recent ruling by the U.S. Treasury eases restrictions on using the funds to reimburse salaries.

Early on in the pandemic, if jurisdictions wanted to use the money for salaries, a detailed accounting of hours spent working on battling the coronavirus was required. The Treasury decided police, fire and other safety service personnel are substantially dedicated to the pandemic so itemized bills are no longer required.

The Hamilton police and fire departments adjusted to numerous quarantines because of positive coronavirus tests, which drove up costs. The federal funds will help make up that difference.

“We have had officers who have been exposed during the course their duties and we have had people quarantined. It has affected our operations. One of those is incurring overtime as a result.” said Hamilton police Chief Craig Bucheit.

As with schools and other organizations, more disruptions have been caused by those who need to be quarantined because of possible exposure than those who tested positive.

“We made some decision early on that if we had people who were exposed at high level, we would not have them working and exposing other firefighters,” said fire Chief Mark Mercer. “Quite a few people who were off as a precaution. But we did have fire or six of our members who had COVID.”

He said they were diligent using information supplied through health departments to track positive patients that firefighters may have been exposed to.

“We were really cautious in making sure we looked at all exposures to our people and proactively isolating them where we could … we have quit a few people who were off anywhere from three to five shifts and the costs overtime,” Mercer said.

Through those staffing challenges, officials have adjusted their training to try to decrease exposures and keep up best practices.

“As this has developed, we have continued to adapt our response," Bucheit said. “Moving forward, we have certainly gone through a number of scenarios with this pandemic that have occurred, could still occur, to make sure regardless what happens we are prepared.”