(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The mayor of a Southern Illinois town where the entire police department is in quarantine said municipal employees have now complied with his mandate that they be vaccinated.
Three police officers and the chief of police in Venice, Illiniois — across from St. Louis — are all in COVID quarantine, along with a dispatcher.
The Illinois State Police and Madison County Sheriff’s police are picking up the slack, said Tyrone Echols, who has been mayor of Venice for 39 years.
And after Echols mandated that Venice’s 20 town employees get vaccinated, he said the last two streets workers got their first shots last week.
He says it’s his responsibility to provide a safe working environment.
“Regardless of these knuckleheads who keep decrying it’s not the thing to do —yes, it is the thing to do,” he said Monday.
Mayor Echols said he thinks things will begin to return to normal in the next week.
“Tell the people to get their shots or go lay down and wait for the undertaker because he will be by.”
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