EAST MADISON -- Somerset County commissioners received the first draft of a plan to protect essential government operations in the event of an influenza pandemic from H1N1, the so-called swine flu.

From mundane services such as having a direct deposit system in place for financial services, to more extreme measures of "social distancing" and closing public facilities, the 22-page plan outlines in detail what should happen in the event of widespread infection.

Somerset County Emergency Management Director Robert Higgins said he developed the plan based on a model created through he Sagadahoc County health board. He said each county will develop its own plan.

"Somerset County's ability to maintain essential functions will depend on health, training, performances and dedication of its employees," Higgins writes in the draft document.

Key functions must be maintained in order to respond to and recover from pandemic influenza, he said.

Using daily operations in the county treasurer's office as an example, Higgins said the county needs a plan to make sure bills are paid in the event of the office staff staying home with illnesses of their own or of their children. He said that example overlaps to law enforcement, food service and transportation at the jail, public works, public safety and continued operation at the Public Safety Answering Point, the county communications center.

Higgins said county employees and department heads should plan ahead by setting aside supplies of latex gloves, surgical masks, protective eyeware, hand sanitizer and computer keyboard and mouse covers. He said workers dealing with the public should consider limiting or avoiding hand-shaking, sharing utensils and other social activities that can spread germs if flu symptoms are widespread.

Employees also should be encouraged to get flu shots, limit travel and meetings if seasonal flu is widespread -- and above all, Higgins said, stay home if you have flu symptoms.

"If three-quarters of the dispatchers at the (communications) center come down with H1N1 or their children did and they had to take care of them, how would they continue, how would they fill the shifts?" Higgins asked county commissioners during Wednesday's meeting in a conference room at the county jail. "Same way with the sheriff's patrol, with patrol deputies who are out sick -- how would they fulfill their obligation?"

What is comes down to, commissioners said, is county employees using common sense.

Commissioner Lynda Quinn cautioned fellow commissioners to avoid a "knee-jerk reaction" to reports of widespread influenza and the onset of H1N1. Common sense measures such as wiping door knobs, chairs and washing hands will go a long way to preventing or limiting the spread of flu symptoms, she said.

"I'm not going to approve anything that has this 'upon arrival for scheduled shifts' to get people to take people's temperatures," Quinn said. "That's the government being way too intrusive in people's personal lives and it just gets ugly after that."

Higgins agreed, noting the draft still must go to a meeting of county department heads and the safety committee for changes and final review by the county commissioners at their next meeting in two weeks.

"This is just a template," Higgins said. "What ends up as a final document is up to them. Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it."

Doug Harlow -- 474-9534, ext. 342

dharlow@centralmaine.com