WATERVILLE — The City Council is scheduled Tuesday to consider whether to hold remote-only meetings due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The council is also expected to discuss retiring the city’s plastic bag ordinance, which prohibits stores that are 10,000 square feet and larger from dispensing free, carry-out plastic bags with purchases.

Voters in 2018 approved the bag ban, which was initiated to alleviate the proliferation of plastic on roadsides and in waterways. Councilors voted in 2020 to suspend the bag ordinance for several months due to the pandemic, and then the ordinance went back into effect.

Tuesday’s meeting is scheduled to begin 7 p.m. at The Elm at 21 College Ave. Those wanting to watch or participate virtually can do so via links on the city’s website — www.waterville-me.gov. An executive session is set for 6:15 p.m. for councilors to meet with legal counsel.

City employees are required to wear masks when interacting with other employees due to an increasing number of workers testing positive for COVID-19.

City Manager Steve Daly told councilors recently that about a dozen city workers were in various stages of COVID-19 exposure protocols, with more than half working in person and taking appropriate measures to keep themselves and others safe, although the city had not experienced a diminishing ability to perform duties due to the rise in coronavirus cases.

More than two weeks ago, Daly issued an administrative directive that city employees wear masks when in contact with other municipal workers. Daly did so after speaking with fire Chief Shawn Esler, the city’s lead person on COVID-19 matters, who advised mask wearing to protect the city’s workforce, Daly said.

From September through November, about one in 18 city employees who underwent COVID-19 tests was positive for the virus, according to Daly. In December, that rose to one in eight employees, which Esler said likely reflected the surge in the omicron variant, Daly told councilors last week.

While the omicron variant is not more lethal or debilitating than other strains of the virus, it is eight times more transmissible, according to information from Daly. As a result, the city was running the risk of crippling the workforce because employees were still under a quarantine protocol requiring they stay out of work for five to 10 days, he said.

As part of Daly’s administrative order, he required members of the public wear masks in public spaces at City Hall and at City Council and Planning Board meetings, but Daly told councilors Jan. 18 he actually does not have the authority to do that. The council has that authority, however.

Council Chairwoman Rebecca Green, D-Ward 4, and Councilor Claude Francke, D-Ward 6, thanked Daly for requiring city staff members to wear masks at work. Green said she would encourage councilors to require masks at council meetings or move to remote meetings because few people feel prepared to attend in person, and she thinks the point of meeting in person is becoming less important if people are not attending.

Francke noted that wearing a mask helps protect others, especially given omicron is much more infectious than previous variants.

In other matters, the City Council is expected to consider authorizing Daly to sign a contract for construction of Green Street Park in the city’s South End, and establish a comprehensive plan review committee.

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