GENEVA – The Kane County Board has approved Chairman Corinne Pierog’s initiative to require masks and social distancing in the county government center’s main building.

Board members approved the measure proposed by Pierog, D-Batavia, during a special meeting on Monday without any votes in opposition.

Pierog, newly installed as chairman after winning the Nov. 3 election, said the mandate is needed to protect employees, elected officials and members of the public alike.

The requirement affects the government center’s Building A, which houses offices for the county administration, treasurer, auditor and the development department, as well as the county’s board’s meeting room.

Board members amended Pierog’s proposal to require that persons who are unable to wear a mask must practice social distancing at all times while in the building.

Before approving the mandate, board members turned to their legal counsel for advice, concerned that the requirement might run afoul of employee union contracts.

Kane County State’s Attorney Civil Division Chief Michele Niermann assured board members that they are on solid legal ground.

“You are well within your rights to make a mandate to protect workforce employees,” Niermann said.

Once the Sacred Heart Seminary for the training of Catholic priests, the brick building was constructed in 1941 and acquired by the county in 1972 for service as the government center.

The county board’s meeting room is located within what had been the seminary’s chapel. The original wooden pews still provide seating for the public.

Several board members and county staffers were seated in those pews at Monday’s meeting, in order to allow for social distancing in the main seating area for the board.

Nearly half of the board’s 24 members attended the session virtually, rather than in person.

Meanwhile, the board authorized another round of COVID-19 grant money for small businesses.

Over the summer the county received $93 million from the U.S. Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act Fund.

The board allocated roughly half that total for health, public safety and information technology efforts by the county government to deal with the pandemic.

Much of the rest was set aside for municipalities and other units of local government for their own COVID-19 response needs.

However, the board budgeted $8 million to help reimburse hard-hit small businesses in the county.