The Sherburne Board of Commissioners met Tuesday morning and learned about the County’s continued efforts in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.  Through the diligent work of many county staff, several important milestones were reached this week.

CARES Act

Assistant administrator Dan Weber announced that the county received this week its 100th business application for a CARES Act funding grant.  With grants already awarded and a few in the processing stage, the county will surpass the $2 million level in terms of awarded money to businesses.  There is still some time left for businesses to submit their grant applications, but the deadline is fast approaching.

When the CARES Act funding originally became available, the county had set a goal to award at least twenty percent of the funds to businesses/organizations and they will meet this mark very soon.

The board voiced its pleasure with the speed at which it has been able to get the funding to area businesses.

County administrator Bruce Messelt next reported on the status of the nonprofit organization grants, as well as the approximate $1.1 million in personnel costs that will be reimbursed to the county from the CARES funding.

To date, the county has appropriated about $7 million in its allotted CARES funding.

Resilience

The board heard a presentation on the ongoing efforts at building resilience within communities and specifically the Creating A Ripple social media campaign.

Melissa Pribyl of CentraCare’s Bounce Back Project discussed the campaign with the board, as it is a joint effort between mental health providers, school districts, faith communities, the SUP coalition and many other agencies in providing resilience to families and individuals.  The coalition of groups is dubbed STIR, or Stronger Together Inspiring Resilience.  By working together, the group can leverage the talents and efforts of the many organizations in creating a central repository of resilience based information to help strengthen communities.

HHS Upgrades

The board next considered upgrades to the HHS system in being able to be more efficient in remote working situations.  Safeguarding documents, managing accountability and having a more centralized system were listed as some of the reasons for the upgrades to the systems.

Administrator Messelt also mentioned that this would allow for the more efficient processing of Emergency Assistance (EA) applications which are time sensitive.

The board moved approval of the funding package for the upgrades.

Pandemic Update

Amanda Larson provided the board an update on the county’s current COVID statistics.

She noted that Elk River recently surpassed the Sherburne portion of St. Cloud in number of diagnosed cases, which was to be expected considering the population numbers.

Larson also reported on the county’s efforts at working with the school districts, noting that case interviews are completed when confirmed cases are reported by schools.  To date, nine cases were reported from the schools as a primary work setting, while ten cases had reported visiting a school in the last 14 days.

As a county, 60% of confirmed cases have been reported as community spread, meaning the person is unaware of the source from which they contracted COVID-19.

The current 14 day rolling average which dictates school opening plans was 14.7 while next week it is projected to be 16.7.

However, the surrounding counties have reported higher averages, with Stearns at 25.8, Benton at 20 and Anoka at nearly 21.  Once a school crosses the 20 mark, it is recommended that their elementary schools switch to a hybrid model.

Larson told the board that her department continues to work closely with schools to help with contact tracing and other duties as needed.

A public health nurse is assigned to work with each school district to help with the daily duties and also they offer to do a walk through of the buildings to look at the prevention side of the issue as well.

In other business, the board:

• Approved the contract for services for residential well sampling;

• Agreed to implement the low income septic program with a maximum cap for grants at $5,000 per property;

• Heard from Administrator Messelt regarding some ongoing construction efforts at the government center;

• Scheduled a webex special meeting for Tuesday, October 13 to consider CARES Act funding requests;

• Approved a CUP with conditions for the Langowski property in Palmer Township;

• Approved a final simple plat with four conditions for Manthei Estates in Livonia Township;

• Discussed the first phase of the Buck Run development in Baldwin Township and approved a negative declaration on the need for an EIS, as well as approval of the preliminary plat;

• Heard from Assistant Administrator Dan Weber, who presented the special housing HVAC unit upgrades and the board approved the qualified low bidders in each area;

• Granted approval for the low bidders in the special housing painting project.