The Sherburne County Board of Commissioners spent considerable time Tuesday listening to the current covid situation and how it is affecting local citizens.

HHS Director Amanda Larson updated the board on the current statistics and painted a grim picture of the exponential growth in cases facing the county.

Larson pointed out that it took 225 days to get to the first 2,000 cases in the county and only 14 days to get to the next 2,000 cases.   She also reported that 47% of hospitalizations at CentraCare are covid related and Sherburne’s positivity rate for testing currently sits at 6.2% and is expected to rise.  The St. Cloud saliva testing location is reporting the highest percentage of positive tests (25%) of all similar sites in the entire state of Minnesota.

So far, Sherburne’s highest daily total for infections has been 269, while Larson estimates there are 700 current, active infections within the county.

In addressing the schools within the county, Larson said the case rate number, which guides schools in determining their learning model, will be 173 per 10,000 residents this Thursday and is expected to increase to past 200 by next week.  After a case rate of 50 infections per 10,000 people, MDH recommends schools should be in the full distance learning model.  She reported that almost all schools within the county are transitioning to the distance learning model, but some are still in a hybrid mode.

Finally, Larson reported that the contact tracers from the county are well beyond capacity at this point and her staff cannot keep up with the demand.  In the earlier days of the pandemic, all positive tested adults would be contacted by public health staff to trace contacts and recommend isolation and quarantining timelines.  However, because there are so many infections staff can no longer contact residents as they have in the past.

CARES Act

While the news on covid was bleak, the board continues to focus its efforts on helping businesses, nonprofits and individuals through the destruction by using its CARES Act funding.  The deadline for expenditures is looming so several actions were undertaken in an effort to close the books.

Seventeen additional business grants were approved and with a couple left to finalize, the county will surpass the $4 million mark in this area.

Several additional expenditures were approved, one of which will take the county past $2 million in personnel reimbursements costs as staff tries to navigate the county’s needs in dealing with the fallout of the pandemic.

County Administrator Bruce Messelt presented two options for the board to consider with their remaining funds, expected to be somewhere between $500,000 to $1 million.  The board had previously decided that they would try to help school districts with any remaining funds.  After brief discussion, the board decided to award these remaining dollars to districts on a per pupil basis as long as the school had not already met the Federal threshold of $500 per student in CARES money when considering all revenue sources.  Final figures will be presented in a special meeting scheduled for Tuesday.  In looking at the current figures, Messelt expected the amount to be $35.90 per pupil at a minimum.

Broadband

Another area where the county is working diligently is in the area of broadband, given the nature of distance learning and the lack of available options for rural citizens.

Laura Kangas, of Arvig, spoke to the board via Webex about the company’s efforts at bringing high speed internet access to more customers.  She said they recently signed up 125 customers on County Road 8 and are also looking at additional state grant money to extend service to other underserved areas.

The commissioners thanked Kangas for her efforts and then discussed reaching out to other providers.  Assistant Administrator Dan Weber noted that there is a meeting scheduled for Friday with Midco, who has been active across the county in bringing new broadband access to certain developments.

Adoption Month

Next, the commissioners approved a proclamation signifying November as Adoption Month in Sherburne County.  The announcement encourages all county residents to celebrate adoption and honor the families that go through the process.

Staff provided an update on their efforts to help the adoption process and also the challenges they have faced with Covid-19.  In 2019, 22 Toal adoptions were completed in the county and so far this year there have been 9.  Currently, 3 youth are waiting for adoption within Sherburne County.

Great Northern

Gina Hugo presented a MOU for the board to consider in bringing together stakeholders to continue developing the Great Northern Trail.  Currently the route goes approximately 30 miles from Elk River to Milaca and sits on a retired railroad bed. This year, four miles were paved bringing the total to about 10 miles of nonporous surface.

The MOU will aim to bring many communities together in an effort to gain designation as a Region Trail, which can open the doors to increased grant funding, including those awarded by the MN Legacy Fund.

It also enables the participating entities to cooperate in areas such as easement acquisitions and special events planning.

Firing Range IUP

Another big agenda item the board considered was an IUP application for a firing range located in Palmer Township.

Paul Braun had applied for the IUP to allow for the teaching of firearms classes, law enforcement training and weapons manufacture and testing at his residence.

He is currently doing some of the work but would like to operate the shooting facility as well.

The board spent considerable time reviewing the recommendation from the Planning Commission, which was to deny the entire permit based on not being able to meet 3 of the 5 requirements for an IUP.  Noise, safety and future development and property values were the three reasons which stood out as negative impacts resulting in the proposed denial.

However, the board felt that some of the uses that don’t involve live firing of the weapons could meet the definition of the IUP for the property.  They unanimously approved a motion directing staff to bring back some options for final findings and conditions that can be acted on at the December 1st board meeting.