Petersburg’s borough assembly Friday approved a contract for testing, screening and greeting for incoming travelers at the James A. Johnson airport.
The borough started greeting passengers at the airport on June 6th and started COVID-19 testing there last Tuesday. The measures are meant to ensure travelers from out of state are complying with quarantine or testing requirements under state health mandate number 10.
The state will be paying the municipal government for that work, potentially up to $176,675. In turn, the borough will be paying Petersburg Medical Center around 130,000 dollars for the staff doing the testing, along with handing the tests and lab fees.
The borough’s incident commander Karl Hagerman explained the decision to assembly members Friday morning.
“Today’s action is to formalize the borough’s agreement with the state for payments for our services and of course also to set up this memorandum of agreement with the hospital so that they are also reimbursed ultimately from the state for their part in the testing at the airport,” Hagerman said.
The vote also included an agreement with the medical center to do that work through the end of August.
The assembly had just four members attend Friday’s meeting. That’s just enough for a quorum. Jeigh Stanton Gregor, Chelsea Tremblay, Jeff Meucci and Bob Lynn all voted in favor of the contract and agreement.
