As a result of the COVID-19 surge, the City of Cottage Grove announced that its meetings will now be virtual only “for the foreseeable future,” Mayor Myron Bailey said.

“We’re all remote,” he said at the start of last Wednesday night’s meeting.

The city has allowed attendance at recent meetings, with a fairly large group of people on hand for a recent meeting to talk about snowmobile trail changes.

Last week, however, the pictures of an empty city council chambers were aired during the meeting.

As Gov. Tim Walz put two orders into effect in recent weeks, Cottage Grove and many government bodies who had allowed in-person meetings went back to the Zoom format.

“The City of Cottage Grove passed an emergency declaration which remains in effect,” Bailey said at a mid-November meeting. “It allows the city some flexibility in the event of coronavirus spikes and surges.”

“It gives the city the opportunity to respond and take precautions ensuring the health and safety of its residents, elected officials and city staff members,” said Bailey. “Working with our emergency management team, we have determined the most cautious, prudent and safe course of action would be to hold our city council meetings virtually.”

Within the live meeting format, accessible on the city website, resident can still “appear” before the council and offer questions and comments.

“Development and government partners, and more importantly our residents, can still participate in these open and transparent meetings via Zoom,” said Bailey.

Meetings are also broadcast online on YouTube and on cable channel 18.

“We look forward to the day when the virus concerns subside, and we can reconvene in-peron at city hall.”

Bailey made the announcement at a special council meeting Nov. 13 where a resolution was passed to make official the local results of the Nov. 3 election. The resolution was approved unanimously and showed that Bailey was elected mayor with a final total of 17,966 votes, running unopposed. There were 619 write-in votes cast.

The canvassing affirmed that incumbents Justin Olsen and La Rae Mills retained their seats on the council, with Olsen garnering 12,309 votes and Mills earning 9,601. Challenger Nick Cauthen received 7,408 votes, and there were 294 write-ins.

A total of 22,932 votes were cast of about 26,000 registered voters.