The City's Offices Temporary Shutdown

A surge of covid cases in the queen city causes some changes.

This Morning Mayor Jimmie Smith held a special called press conference addressing the rising covid cases in The City of Meridian,which led to the decision of a temporary shut down of the city offices.

Public Safety Director Doug Stephens stated, "This is an effort to reduce the exposure to all of our city employees and the general public we come into contact with daily. We have had a surge in cases here in Lauderdale County in the city of Meridian and it has affected our employees and staff."

The city will begin its shutdown later today and plans to reopen on Monday January 3rd in an attempt to reduce the spread of the virus.

"We will shut down non-essential personnel. So all of our city offices, clerical work, things like that, all of our common spaces will be closed. There will be emergency services and essential personal," said Stephens.

With covid cases on the rise in The Queen City, the city’s temporary shutdown takes place in hopes to limit the exposure of COVID-19.

"We have had a large number of our city employees affected and we just want to take this additional precaution to shutdown for a short period of time, to allow those that are currently out to get well and get better and to limit the exposure of our employees for an extra day or so just to try to minimize the spread," said Stephens.

Deborah Young The Chief of Police also stated that non-essential personnel will not be at The Meridian Police Department.

"Our front desk will not be operating for the rest of the week. After today we will have signs posted on the door. Emergency calls can still go through at our 911 dispatcher. Non-emergency calls can be made at 601-484-6845 or the on-duty shift commander at 601-917-5030, and that is for protection of our officers in the community."

There will also be a mask mandate for all employees and visitors on all city properties starting January 3rd,2022.