Second Crew of Sequestered Staff now in Place at City of Brandon Water Treatment Facility


April 23, 2020

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Brandon, MB – To ensure a safe supply of potable water remains available for residents, institutions, and businesses through the continuing COVID-19 pandemic response, the City of Brandon has made the decision to continue sequestering staff at the City of Brandon Municipal Water Treatment Facility, with a second crew beginning their 24-7 on-site presence at the facility today. Lodging trailers remain on-site to serve as personal accommodations for the sequestered crew, whose meal requirements and entertainment amenities all continue to be fully provided for.

The crew of nine municipal water treatment facility operators and maintenance staff that were initially sequestered on Thursday, March 26th have now all been released from the facility, with a new crew of eight operators and maintenance staff taking their place. A contingency plan is in place if sequestering a third crew is required.

City of Brandon Water Treatment Facility Operator Alan Howe says he and the other operators who were part of the initially-sequestered crew are very excited to be home with their families, but were also surprised at how fast four weeks of being confined to the facility went.

“We all very much appreciated the abundance of food and entertainment provided to us by the City Of Brandon,” Howe says. “We had an adjustment period at the beginning, but felt comfortable in our surroundings at the end. If asked to come back in to the facility for another sequestration, we all would say ‘yes.’”

To ensure an adequate complement of maintenance staff for the second shift, City of Brandon Municipal Water Treatment Facility Maintenance worker Dustin Maxwell was actually released from the plant earlier this week and is spending a week at home in isolation before returning to the facility for a second shift. Maxwell describes to his time confined in the facility as a “comfortably stressful state,” adding, “We did miss our families, but we are glad to do our part.”

City of Brandon General Manager of Operations and City Engineer Patrick Pulak says every single staff member involved in the water facility sequestering plan should be commended for their dedication to ensuring the essential service of water production remained unimpeded by the Coronavirus’s spread.

“We’ll continue to offer whatever supports are required by the families of sequestered staff and we continue to offer our genuine gratitude to all staff who have willingly sacrificed their personal comforts during a global pandemic in order to maintain the City’s water supply,” Pulak says.

Information on the City of Brandon’s COVID-19 pandemic response can be found at http://www.brandon.ca/covid-19-updates. General enquiries relating to municipal services can be directed to the City of Brandon Enquiry Line at 204-729-2186 during regular business hours or can be submitted online at http://www.brandon.ca/contact-us.