They may not be far from Nebraska’s capitol city, but the size and scope of Waverly and Hickman differ greatly than the heavily impacted Lincoln.
KLIN News spoke with Hickman Mayor Doug Hanson and Wavelry Mayor Mike Werner and discussed how each of their more rural communities are handling COVID-19.
Both communities face unique challenges but both said they’re doing the best they can, given what they have and the information being provided.
When asked about what the future may hold for each community, both mayors said they want students back in the classroom in the fall and hope that no other senior class misses high school milestones.
Hickman, NE – 20 miles south of Lincoln – Population 2,300
Hanson says one of the biggest challenges his fast-growing community faces is their newly-built community center.
It serves as one of the town’s lifebloods, but because of social distancing guidelines, they’ve closed it.
“For example, we had youth sports going on in the building a lot, we have a reading center, we have conference areas, there were four weddings we had to cancel. The community center is used that much,” he says.
Being in Lancaster County, the community and its residents must abide by the directed health measure put in place by the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department.
Hanson says he feels the city has enough resources from the health department, which is utilized mainly by the volunteer fire department.
“They are keeping up and that’s some of the praise I have is for some of those folks and health care providers and drives along with the others. I can’t get through this communication enough the value I have for those folks,” Hanson says.
Hanson added he believe his residents are doing a good job abiding by the 10-person and six feet rule. He even noticed someone working in their driveway.
As for what’s next, Hanson said he hopes theirs a vaccine to help get his community back to work.
Waverly, NE – 15 miles northeast of Lincoln – Population 3,328
One looming problem for Waverly, mentioned by Werner is a limited amount of staff they have to help continue to provide city services.
“We have to protect the few employees we have since we don’t have an overabundance of employees to cover one another,” he said.
He said only five people work in the public works department and to ensure all employee safety the implemented certain scheduled and work locations to optimize the experience.
Despite the caseload coming from the capitol city, Werner said when restrictions are lifted, they’ll approach it as if they’re just apart of Lincoln.
“But if we act a little different than Lincoln or the county, then all of a sudden you could have people from Lincoln running out to Wavelry because we’re open or vice-versa.”
In terms of resources, Werner says their volunteer fire department has enough personal protective equipment now after being short at the beginning of the pandemic.
Werner leaves office at the end of the year and will be replaced by an incoming mayor and volunteer fire-fighter Bill Gerdes.
Gerdes told us, it’s still about keeping people safe.
“We are just as concerned as everybody else when it comes to know what we’re being exposed to but we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do,” Gerdes said.