City council discusses COVID-19 vaccine incentive

DAWSONVILLE, Ga. – The Dawsonville City Council met Monday evening, Sept. 20, and discussed several topics on the agenda, including a possible vaccine incentive for city employees.

Dawsonville City Manager, Bob Bolz, spoke on the proposed vaccine incentive for city employees to get their COVID-19 vaccinations.

He said that they already have approved for workers to be able to get vaccinated during a workday without penalty.

This means that employees are allowed to leave to get vaccinated and would still be paid for the hours missed.

“Each week I sit in with the GMA virtual conference about COVID. They are pushing herd immunity, herd immunity and the quickest way to get there is encouraging vaccinations,” Bolz said.

Currently, the city doesn’t ask for proof of vaccination but that ideally, the proposed incentive would incentivize individuals who are vaccinated to show documentation and those who are not to go get vaccinated.

The incentive would pay individuals $250 for receiving the vaccine and would pay those who have already received the vaccine if they are willing to show proof.

“If you look, Canton is doing a $500 per employee, Hall County is doing $500 per employee. If all 21 people [for Dawson County] got vaccinated, it would be a $5,250 expense of which $2,100 would be reimbursed from ARPA money. They are willing to pay $100 of incentive money so, it would be $3,150 to the city,” Bolz said.

He continued that he thought it was something that could be easily covered by the city and that this is simply an effort to get people vaccinated.

The council opted to vote on this matter at the upcoming meeting on Oct. 4.