Little did they know the city would face a global pandemic just over a month later.
While city officials touched on drainage and flooding during the 2021 State of the City held Jan. 29, a lot of the discussion concentrated on League City surviving and even thriving as a result of the pandemic.
City Manager John Baumgartner said one of the hardest challenges the city faced was when 11 of the 12 fire marshal’s office employees either contracted COVID-19 or was quarantined. Through that experience, the city adapted, Baumgartner said.
For instance, the city began doing fire inspections virtually, he said. To this day, residents can submit comments to be read during the public comment portion of League City City Council meetings an option that did not exist before COVID-19. City employees work from home, but frontline workers still continue to do their jobs, creating some normalcy, Baumgartner said.