Most city employees are vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Most of Astoria’s city employees will be vaccinated against the coronavirus ahead of Monday’s deadline set by the City Council, but the few resignations the city has seen and an ongoing shortage of workers and volunteer firefighters has departments worried.

One volunteer firefighter, one fire department intern and two employees at the city’s child care facility have resigned because of vaccination mandates enacted by state and city leaders.

At a special meeting on Thursday, the City Council approved a grace period for employees who have at least received their first dose of vaccine by Monday in order to avoid losing key staff. New hires will be given extra time to get vaccinated, as well.

Gov. Kate Brown required all health care workers, including firefighters, and staff and volunteers in K-12 schools to be vaccinated by Monday. The City Council followed the governor’s announcement with a vaccine mandate of its own. Police officers are exempt under state law and city employees could apply for religious or medical exemptions.

Besides the handful of resignations, several employees at the Astoria Aquatic Center have yet to show proof of vaccination or update the city on their vaccination status.

The Parks and Recreation Department, which oversees the child care facility and the aquatic center, is operating with a “pretty extreme skeleton crew,” said Jonah Dart-McLean, the city’s parks director. If the department loses any more employees or even if employees have to go on sick leave, the pool may not be open as much and parents could see a decrease in services at the day care.

The parks department relies heavily on part-time workers at both facilities and has struggled to recruit new hires. City leaders are exploring the possibility of a public-private partnership to take over day care operations and allow the department to shift more resources to the aquatic center.

At the fire department, the loss of one volunteer firefighter and an intern because of the vaccine mandate may not have an immediate effect, but there could be wider repercussions if other fire districts in the region also see a reduction in available staff. Warrenton Mayor Henry Balensifer has warned firefighters may quit over the governor’s vaccine mandate and fire districts countywide have voiced similar concerns.

Astoria Fire Chief Dan Crutchfield told city councilors Thursday that people could see slower response times to emergencies because of staffing issues across fire departments. In the future, Crutchfield said he will need to evaluate staffing levels, how volunteers are recruited and consider if the department is using staff efficiently and effectively. He also may need to review the fire department’s response protocols and consider whether to limit the kinds of calls firefighters respond to.

Still, Crutchfield was cautiously optimistic about the state of the fire department following the vaccine mandate.

“I think this could have been much worse,” he said.

For now, one of the fire department’s bigger challenges — unrelated to the mandate — is a crew that is newer and less experienced. At the same time, they have also gained younger firefighters who are energetic and eager, Crutchfield added.

City leaders enacted a vaccine mandate in August, arguing that vaccination was the best tool to protect employees and the community and curb the spread of the virus. On Thursday, they said they were encouraged by how many employees had chosen to get vaccinated.

The city granted a few religious and medical exemptions and is working with these employees on workplace accommodations, such as weekly testing paid for by the city and the required use of KN95 masks, supplied by the city, in place of cloth masks or other types of face coverings.

These accommodations could change if the employee isn’t regularly meeting the requirements or if the masks are not available and testing becomes too costly or too limited, said City Manager Brett Estes and Ashley Houston, the city’s human resources manager.

The City Council expects to hear a final status update on staff vaccinations at a meeting Monday night.