Warren City Council approved a resolution on Monday affirming the potential for a county emergency declaration.

That declaration was handed down on Tuesday.

But a municipal police aid agreement designed to continue to provide essential police service in the event the pandemic escalates is going to have to wait for a special meeting later in the week.

Police Chief Brandon Deppen said the city is working closely with the county.

“It is important that council and the public be aware,” he said, that “emergency personnel are cooperating across agencies” and a “sound response plan is in place.”

He said that Commissioner Ben Kafferlin asked for the city’s support of an emergency declaration. The municipal aid agreement, he said, would allow police to work across jurisdictional lines.

“What this is going to boil down to,” Deppen explained, is “we are being told by the CDC and other entities that we can see a reduction in our workforce.”

This agreement is an “effort for us to be able to provide services to our citizens in the entire county if this pandemic hits us hard. And that’s all it is… just providing services to our citizens, just trying to be proactive.”

City Manager Nancy Freenock, though, said the documentation was only received Monday afternoon and concerns were expressed regarding the terms of the agreement and the fact that the city’s police department is the “only 24/7 operation in the county.”

“If we have someone injured… outside the city, the city is going to pay that expense,” she said.

It was concluded that council will meet in a special meeting, most likely by the end of the week, to address this agreement.

Councilman John Wortman said he is “very comforted to know that during this time we have the staff we do at the city that are taking all precautions necessary” in a “once in a lifetime epidemic…. If we do not, people will die.”