Riverside City Hall may lock its doors to the public starting Wednesday.

Staff will still be inside to take care of city business over the phone and online.

The City Council left the decision to move ahead with the lockdown to City Administrator Christine Yancey, who will be on a conference call with the League of Cities on Tuesday afternoon.

The conference call will provide city officials throughout the state with recommendations for dealing with the coronavirus outbreak.

During Monday’s City Council meeting, Mayor Allen Schneider led the discussion on how best to continue city services while protecting staff from becoming infected themselves.

“We need to protect citizens and staff,” Schenider said.

Councilperson Lois Schneider endorsed locking City Hall.

“I think people have to take it serious,” she said, adding that it is not fair to city staff to potentially expose them to people with the virus who may visit City Hall.

City Clerk Becky LaRoche said people are already staying away.

“There’s been more online this month than before,” she said.

The council discussed suspending shut-off of resident water service for non-payment of bills.

Councilperson Edgar McGuire said shutting off water would prevent residents from washing their hands, the No. 1 recommendation by the Center for Disease Control to protect people from contracting the virus.

But people will need to let city officials know they are having trouble paying bills because of the coronavirus.

“If they are not communicating with us, then it’s business as usual,” Councilperson Andy Rodgers said.

The mayor and Yancey spent the weekend researching the virus and best practices for cities to deal with it.

“The biggest part of my day today was coronavirus,” Yancey said at the meeting.

Among other steps discussed:

• Closing the City Hall meeting room from public use for four weeks.

• Holding City Council meetings via teleconference that would be live-streamed online. Mayor Schneider said the system would need to permit residents to participate in the meeting, pointing to a public hearing on next year’s city budget scheduled for March 23. “It’s a public hearing, so we have to be prepared to take comments,” he said.

• Encouraging residents to pay city bills online or drop payments in the City Hall drop box.

• Keeping public restrooms at city parks closed. Usually they open for the season in early April.

• Suspending water cutoffs for non-payment of bills.

• Considering postponing citywide garage sales and the city cleanup day.

• Endorsing the Riverside Area Community Club’s decision to postpone the Capt. Kirk birthday celebration at Murphy’s and the annual Easter egg hunt.

• Postponing fire department training sessions.

Yancey will inform the council of the steps she plans to take after the Tuesday conference call with the League of Cities.