Thank you to the Lion's Club for continuing a tradition in Covington, the Christmas parade! This year the parade was held on Saturday, December 5, in a "reverse" fashion: the parade participants were stationary on the parade route (Newton Drive) while attendees enjoyed the parade from their vehicles. Also, thank you to all the participants in the reverse parade...we are grateful for your contribution to spreading holiday cheer and positivity in our community!
The Annual Employee Christmas Lunch was held at Legion Field on Thursday, December 3 and was hosted by the Human Resources Department. Special thanks to Jackie Dial and Laura Sullivan for planning the event that was catered by Plain Nuts and an extra thank you to HR for offering a drive thru option!
Employee Spotlight
John Morris, Meter Reader
Data Processing/Meter Reading Department
- Where were you born? Hinsdale, IL
- What was your first car? Mazda 323
- What was your last job before working at the City? Poker dealer
- How long have you worked at the City? 3.5 years
- What is your favorite part about working at the City? I like contributing to the community I live in and I really love my work commute being less than a mile.
- What is one thing you are proud of in your life? Being a credited actor and having an IMDB page
- What is your favorite book and/or movie? The Godfather Part 1 & 2
- What is your ideal vacation spot? Take me to the beach!
- If you could have dinner with a celebrity, dead or alive, who would it be? Daniel Day-Lewis and Katy Perry☺
- What is your hidden talent? I'm a World Series of Poker Circuit Champ
- Met with businesses owners and residents
- Worked on the 2019-202 PAFR
- Met with Human Resources Department
- ICMA Management Fellow Maddi Powers completed a ride-along with the Police Department
- Attended the employee holiday luncheon
- Attended the leadership team meeting
- Met with an assistant city manager as a mentor through ICMA coach connect
- Prepared for the next WE LEAD events
- Met with Newton County employees
- Attended Human Resources RFP presentations
- Met with the Public Works Department
- Met with Electric City of Georgia
- Continued working on RFQ for Energy Services.
Pictured: Mike Jewell (left), Natural Gas Director, and Freddy Morgan (right), Assistant City Manager, celebrate the holidays by wearing Christmas cat t-shirts.
- Two orders to change out water meter ERT
- Five orders to change out water meters
- One order to check water meter usage
- One order to replace meter lid
- One order to locate water meter
- One order to check water pressure
- One order to repair water main
Pictured: Zack McKibben and Dustin Nichols repair a 10-inch water main on Newton Drive
- One order to fix sink hole from water leak
- One order to check sewer easement
- One order to investigate sewer smell
- One order to TV customer tap
- One order to check sewer backup
- Two orders to drop off manhole ring and cover for contractor
- One order to remove steel plate for contractor
Pictured: Anderson Grading and Pipeline install a new manhole on Williams Street
- Responded to two emergency leak calls.
- Completed two inspection and unlock requests.
- Completed two rectifier inspections.
- Completed sixty-three cathodic protection pipe to soil readings.
- Installed one new service.
- Completed one inspection and unlock request.
- Two service orders and check meter requests completed.
- Repaired a damaged regulator station that was hit by a vehicle resulting in an outage for seven customers.
- Mike Jewell attended a virtual 2020 Pipeline Safety Conference meeting
- Nine trouble and outage calls
- 35 light orders completed
- 14 LED lights installed
- Four permanent power installed
- One temporary power installed
- 19 pole pulls
- Three low line orders
- Two drop services for tree removal
- Two underground services installed
- 200-feet of underground 3-phase primary reconducted (Ginn Chevrolet)
- 15 dead trees removed from right-of-way
ACCOUNTING
- Staff entered 202 invoices for payment to vendors
- The city issued 124 checks for 207 invoices
- Accounting department entered 30 journal entries to record transactions of the city
- Staff sent 35 invoices to customers for miscellaneous transactions
- The city issued 541 payroll checks to employees for the bi-weekly payroll
- Senior Accountant attended 1-hour of training
- Staff created preliminary yearly RLGF report to file with the DCA
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Customer Service Representative Aveka Stone works the drive thru to help customers as the lobby is still closed.
Total Transactions Completed by Customer Service Representatives: 2,365
UTILITY BILLING / METER READING
- 4,427 bills processed
- 267 work orders completed
- 18 meter/ert changes
- Read cycles 1, 2, 9, 10, 91
PURCHASING
- Total purchase orders issued – current month - 102
- Total purchase orders issued – current budget year - 1,730
CURRENT AND UPCOMING RFP'S/BIDS
- Central Park Master Plan RFP: Goes out for bid on 12/11/2020
MUNICIPAL COURT
- 61 new citations were processed and filed in the court.
- A total of $16,417.00 in fines and fees were collected from mail, web, probation and in-person counter payments.
- There were three open record requests, two certified disposition requests and no warrant dismissals processed.
- A total of 50 separate case files for the week were scanned into Courtware Software.
- The office has received 220 emails and responded to internal and external customers accordingly.
- There were 186 calls made and received to/from telephone customers.
- Mailed out 80 packets with solicitor’s recommendation for entering a plea.
ACCREDITATION
- Completed cyber security training
- Sent final approval on Strategic Plan to facilitators
- Reviewed and acknowledged policies in Lexipol
- Emailed December anniversary and birthday recognitions to CFD staff
- Ordered office and cleaning supplies
- Approved art and ordered marketing items
- Processed tag letter for firefighter
- Received and distributed hardcopies of Strategic Plan
- Compiled and submitted info for weekly report
TRAINING
- Added and trained two personnel on the Lexipol policy review team.
- Completed Lexipol tier two policy reviews.
- Training and getting ready to host our first blue card command training center.
- Completed a mid-December training hour study to ensure ISO training requirements are being met.
- Completed an NPQ evaluation of the department.
- Uploaded required stated training hours to maintain firefighter certifications for entire department.
FIRE MARSHAL
- Completed two plan reviews
- Completed six annual inspections
- Completed three compliance inspections
- Issued two certificates of operation
- Completed eight reinspections
- Handled two complaint inspection
- B. Thompson completed for NFPA 101 class at GPSTC
- Fire Marshal Doss prepared for IAAI class in South Carolina
- All members of Fire Marshal office completed IT training
Patrol
- On November 30, CPD officers responded to the Travel Lodge on Hwy. 142 in reference to a disturbance. There was a physical altercation that occurred in front of three juveniles. A female was arrested for Battery FVA, three counts of cruelty to children and felony obstruction. Her girlfriend was arrested for Simple Battery FVA and three counts of cruelty to children as well as a failure to appear warrant. Both were taken to jail.
- On December 1, CPD officers responded to Puckett Street in reference to a report of the discharging of a gun. Officers discovered that around 11 p.m. on the previous night, someone shot multiple rounds into a residence. There were 15 bullet holes in the front of the residence and two spent bullets were found. Neighbors stated that it sounded like the bullets came from a fully automatic weapon. The owner of the house stated she was not sure who shot at her residence but suspect her nephew may have been the target. This case was turned over to CID.
- On December 2, CPD officers responded to a shoplifting at Walmart. A female shoplifted a felony number of items. She was arrested and taken to jail.
- On December 2, CPD officers responded to an argument at Rainbow Shelter. A male was provoking fights with multiple subjects inside and was causing a disturbance. He was charged with disorderly conduct.
- On December 4 during a traffic stop on the Access Road, a seventeen-year-old male ran from officers. Officers discovered marijuana and three individuals in the vehicle. The seventeen-year-old ran into a wooded area and was eventually caught.
- On December 6, CPD officers responded to Walmart where a female was caught stealing two Roku boxes valued at $99.00 each. She is a repeat shoplifting offender and warrants were taken for her arrest.
- On December 6, CPD officers responded to a shoplifting at Walmart. A male was charged with shoplifting after he skip scanned some items at self-checkout.
CID
CID Sgt. Allan Seebaran examined Person Crimes and Property Crimes CID detectives worked for November 30, 2020 to December 6, 2020 and compared them with the previous two years. He found the following results:
- PERSON CRIMES: From November 30 - December 6, 2018, there were six reported person crimes; from November 30 - December 6, 2019; there were ten reported person crimes; and from November 30 - December 6, 2020, there were nine reported person crimes. The statistics for the aforementioned time periods include:
- There was a 66% increase (from six to ten) in reported person crimes from 2018 to 2019.
- There was a 30% decrease (from ten to seven) in reported person crimes from 2019 to 2020.
- There was a 16% increase (from six to nine) in reported person crimes from 2018 to 2020.
- PROPERTY CRIMES: From November 30 - December 6, 2018, there were 23 reported property crimes; from November 30 - December 6, 2019; there were 34 reported property crimes; and from November 30 - December 6, 2020, there were 27 reported property crimes.
- There was a 48% increase (from 23 to 34) in reported property crimes from 2018 to 2019.
- There was a 20% decrease (from 34 to 27) in reported property crimes from 2019 to 2020.
- There was a 17% increase (from 23 to 27) in reported property crimes from 2018 to 2020.
911 Operations Manager Anessa Westmoreland and 911 Director Trudy Henry at the Employee Christmas Lunch
The 911 Center hosted the annual awards banquet on December 4, 2020.
Total CAD Calls Received: 1,625
Total Agency Calls Generated: 1,842
Total Law Calls Generated: 1,401 (76.05%)
- Covington Police Department: 451 (24.48%)
- Covington Marshal's Office: 0 (0.00%)
- Newton Co. Animal Control: 5 (0.27%)
- Newton Co. Sheriff's Department: 889 (48.26%)
- Oxford Police Department: 23 (1.24%)
- Porterdale Police Department: 33 (1.79%)
Total Fire Calls Generated: 167 (9.06%)
- Covington Fire: 48 (2.60%)
- Newton County Fire: 119 (6.46%)
EMS Calls Generated: 274 (14.87%)
Upcoming Events
Holidays: Thursday, December 24 and Friday, December 25, 2020
Last Week's Tasks & Events
- Reviewed benefit bills and invoices
- City Christmas Luncheon and Drive-thru
- RFP presentations from four benefit broker vendors: Zoom presentations to RFP Committee
- Mediated personnel issues
- Brainstorming ideas on upcoming training
- On-boarded several new employees
- UGA Carl Vinson Institute of Government Annexation phone interview
- Leadership Meeting – summarized Archer Salary Survey Study to Department Heads
- OneBridge Zoom meeting to discuss their platform of FHRA
- Project Renewal Domestic Violence Board meeting at Cherokee Run in Conyers
Ongoing Events
- Providing quality customer care to our employees and retirees
- Reviewing applications for vacant positions
- Scanning of HR files
- Monitoring the coronavirus pandemic and listening to professionals about proper return to work protocols
- Handling FMLA, Worker’s Compensation and COVID-19 claims
- Scheduling and conducting interviews for vacant position and compiling appropriate documents
- Auditing all employee benefits: invoicing accuracy, vendor satisfaction, etc.
- Posting new positions as vacancies arise
- Prepared job offers for new hires and promoted employees
Current Job Postings
- Electric Line Worker
- Electric Director
- Gas Crew Leader
- Finalized Heat of the Night brochure with all new RVIC info
- Working on monthly numbers for November to submit to state
- Conference call with Augusta regarding 2021 Explore Georgia info to assure all changes and updates have been made for new Welcome Center
- Continue to make adjustments and additions to Center
- Compiled Weekly Report for week ending November 29, 2020
- Attended and photographed Lion's Club Reverse Christmas Parade
- Attended kickoff meeting for Redevelopment Plan
- Presented advertising opportunities at Discover Covington Board Meeting
The State of Georgia and Department of Health are requesting that we continue to:
♦ Wear A Mask
♦ Social Distance
♦ Wash Your Hands Regularly
♦ Follow Public Health Guidance
On the Friday, December 11 COVID-19 phone call with the GNR Health Departments, the following statistics were discussed:
GEORGIA COVID-19 STATS
- Total Cases: Over 462,000 cases
- Deaths: Over 9,000 deaths
NEWTON Co. STATS
- Total Cases: 3,736 cases
- Deaths: 107 deaths
The 14-day case rate has increased from 247 to 302 in Newton County within the last week. Overall positive test rate is now at 14.4% which has increased from 10.6% in the last week.
Dr. Arona also discussed the CDC's new quarantine guidelines:
- 10-day quarantine period: No testing required and only if there are no symptoms during daily monitoring, monitor symptoms until day 14.
- 7-day quarantine period: If a PCR or antigen test is negative and there are no symptoms during daily monitoring, quarantine seven days. The test may be performed on days five, six or seven of quarantine but not before. If the test is negative, quarantine can end on day eight with continued daily monitoring for symptoms until day 14.
- With both the 7- and 10-day methods of release from quarantine, individuals should continue to monitor themselves closely for any symptoms. If COVID-19 symptoms begin after release from quarantine, individuals should immediately isolate again and contact their primary care doctor or the health department for evaluation and possible testing.