The Sherburne County Board of Commissioners met Tuesday morning and  heard updates regarding the county’s role with school openings, as well as how the recent legislative and special sessions will affect the local area moving forward.

The meeting started with a moment of silence for Rose Johnson, the Big Lake city councilmember who died last month.

Health and Human Services Director Amanda Larson was the first staff to address the board, citing the county’s role in working with the public schools in determining their reopening plans.

Larson said that there are five scenarios provided to schools and explained how the county’s public health data will inform the local decisions.  She also noted that for districts within several counties, the most restrictive county data is to be used.

Commissioner Raeanne Danielowski inquired whether or not local schools could use city data as opposed to data from the entire county to make decisions.

Larson responded that she didn’t think so, but that she has been in contact with all school superintendents recently and at least one had asked for that localized data.  Larson said that she is in contact with the state health personnel often and clarification was being sought when there are differing opinions between health and education officials in how the governor’s order is to be implemented.

Larson also pointed out that the data used for decision making will be in later August from fourteen day rolling averages so she does not see the St. Cloud Prison’s recent outbreak affecting the school decisions.  Because the Department of Corrections recently moved their intake to another facility, St. Cloud hasn’t had positive cases in several days and therefore that issue will likely resolve itself.  Data for the county total with and without the prison population is available on the county’s COVID-19 website.

Legislative Session

The Board heard from a number of staff from the Minnesota Inter-County Association (MICA) about issues arising from this year’s legislative sessions. 

MICA Executive Director Matt Massman began by giving an overview of issues that may affect the county in areas such as governmental abilities to meet remotely, temporary extensions for driver’s licenses and appropriations grants for public health. 

Nancy Silesky updated the board on the failure of passage of the HHS omnibus bill and its effects including ramifications on telemedicine once the emergency declaration expires.  There were also sought after changes in waivers for child protection that are in peril without the passage of the bill.

Steve Novak is the MICA staff member who deals closely with transportation and he outlined a pair of issues that could affect the board, as much of the transportation funding is tied up in the bonding bill that has not been passed.  Novak pointed out that there is general agreement on the scope of the bill, but because of a dispute over the governor’s emergency powers it has yet to pass.  September appears to be the earliest chance that the bonding bill will be looked at again, according to Novak.

Currently, there is no agreement on the local road wetland mitigation program and this will affect spring road construction.  Furthermore, the fund for the local bridge statewide competitive bonding program has not been appropriated and this could also have an impact on bridge replacements across the state.

Massman finished up by saying that the recent dire budget forecast released by the state actually included a better than expected GDP projection.  A more recent GDP prediction means that with the economy expected to retract further, the budget forecast could be even worse than the forecast.

In other news, the board:

•Approved a pair of routine planning and zoning amendments as presented by Nancy Riddle;

•Tabled a decision on naming a replacement to the board of adjustment until a thorough analysis of representation from areas within the county is done.  There were nine applicants;

•Accepted the low bid for fencing and other security measures for the government center, while noting that other county facilities were up for additional improvements as well;

•Approved several CARES act expenditures to extend broadband access to underserved areas within the county, including several developments within Becker Township;

•Agreed with Veterans Services Officer Bruce Price’s request for CARES Act funding for expanding and moving his office to better comply with HIPPA and public health precautions when helping county veterans;

•Approved additional space and workstation establishment for the Driver’s License station at the government center.  This will also come from CARES Act funding;

•Accepted Administrator Bruce Messelt’s recommendation for the Community Resource Grant Guidelines pertaining to access to CARES Act funding.