COVID-19 Update: Changes to OFMR-Provided Services

The Office of Facilities Management and Reliability (OFMR) continues to monitor and implement the current guidance from SI Leadership, the CDC, WHO, and public health officials. With this guidance, and taking into consideration the number of SI employees teleworking, OFMR will reduce their level of staffing.

OFMR will maintain only critical operations at our facilities beginning Saturday March 21 until further notice.

To do so, OFMR is:

• Coordinating with building staff and implementing contingency plans to maintain essential building operations. This includes assigning staffing resources to account for reduced occupancy and to ensure a healthy workforce.
• Eliminating non-critical services. OFMR will ensure staff are available for emergency situations. For those OFMR staff scheduled to work, their assignments will be limited to areas frequented by SI-critical staff.  All mechanical, electrical, plumbing and environmental systems will be monitored and supported 24/7. Our ability to respond immediately to emergency situations has not changed.
• Modifying restroom access and concentrated cleaning efforts. To focus on specific areas of use, we will limit restroom access and daily cleaning to areas used by critical support staff.
• Limiting access to shared breakrooms, locker rooms, and seating areas in common spaces. To adhere to local restrictions, we are limiting our staffing numbers and staggering their arrival. OFMR staff have been cleaning all high touch and shared areas with disinfectant and will reduce access to these already-serviced areas to avoid the possibility of re-contamination.
• Continuing day cleaning in trafficked areas. Cleaning staff will focus on cleaning restrooms, staff entrance lobbies, all doors, door handles and knobs, elevator buttons and panels, and other commonly touched areas using disinfecting solutions throughout the business day.
• Providing on-call emergency support services. As always OFMR can be reached via SI communications (sicommunications@si.edu| Internal: 3-9300| External: 202-633-9300) or through designated OFMR building management teams.

 If OFMR is notified by the Institution of a confirmed case of COVID-19 in the building:

• Cleaning and disinfecting services will be provided through specialized vendor services, under guidance from the CDC and the local public health department.

Additionally, the central services provided by the Museum Support Services Division (MSSD) will be impacted as follows:

• Mail Services Branch will be receiving mail but will not be delivering it to the units until further notice. If units are expecting mission critical mail, they should contact Mail Services at 301-238-2220 to arrange delivery.  If you have further questions or concerns please contact Randy Peters at 301-238-2043 or via email PetersR@si.edu.
• Transportation Branch will be suspending Shuttle Service until further notice.  If you have further questions or concerns please contact Joseph Taylor at 301-238-2047 or via email TaylorJO@si.edu.
• Audio Visual Branch will be suspending AV support services unless a mission critical AV requirement arises. If you have further questions or concerns, please contact Dana Dominguez at 202-633-6118 or via email DominguezDa@si.edu.
• Metro Support Branch will be suspending all cargo move services unless a mission critical cargo movement requirement arises. If you have further questions or concerns please contact Kelvin Jackson at 301-238-2053 or via email JacksonK@si.edu.

Should you have further questions or concerns, please contact Rick Petito at petitor@si.edu.

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