The Sherburne County Board of Commissioners met Tuesday morning and spent considerable time listening to Assistant County Administrator Dan Weber explain the county’s expected allocation from the federal government’s American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA).  The first installment of funds is expected to be received this year and the second half will come in 2022 with a total revenue of $18.9 million.

Weber detailed important highlights from the guidance that accompanies the funding, noting the areas in which the county will have greater flexibility in allowable legal expenditures.

Some of the allowable uses for the money include public health response, broadband initiatives, housing and business relief.

Weber polled the board regarding the offering of another round of business relief — noting that there are some counties who are not planning to offer assistance in this area — while relaying that he still receives a couple calls a week from the business community.

“If relief is needed and they can demonstrate the need, I would have a difficult time saying no,” Commissioner Felix Schmiesing said.

The consensus of the board was to agree with Schmiesing about the business relief, however perhaps in a way that targeted businesses who didn’t qualify for the original two rounds of CARES Act money.

The project that drew the most interest from the commissioners was in the area of broadband access to the rural parts of the county.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity in this area,” Board Chair Raeanne Danielowski noted.

Weber explained that the county is in a good position to expand the broadband access despite some fairly stringent ARPA requirements for mb/s speeds.  Currently, the county is conducting a broadband survey that will require a robust response from homeowners and businesses in order to gather enough data to make the project efficient and timely.  Because the county expects to have this data fairly soon, including a map that outlines current coverages across all cities and townships as well as a five year expansion plan, Weber expects that Sherburne could be one of the first county governments ready to start fiber projects and it would be possible that conduit could go in the ground yet this year.

“We are prepared and we have a process in place,” Weber said.  “We are ready to hit the next phase.”

Other uses

Weber reviewed several additional permissible uses for the ARPA funds, including covid-19 related expense reimbursements and mitigation efforts.

For example, the plexiglass installations across the Government Center were successful and look professional, therefore court administration is interested in utilizing these barriers in their area.

In addition, the Entrepreneurs Lab has been successful and could also qualify for the funding based on the successful business retention it has experienced to date.

Another area that could see revenue from the ARPA funds is in revenue loss in services such as passport applications and driver’s licenses.

Weber pointed out that in just the area of passports, perhaps as much as $40,000 in lost revenue could be recouped from lost business during the pandemic period.

The county’s cyber security program could also see an infusion of revenue from the program, as Weber expects some staff to continue to work from home in certain instances where it has proven to be effective and efficient.

Staffing

The county has closely been monitoring the backlog of residential visits it expects to experience as a result of the covid restrictions that have been in place at the Government Center and this could result in additional staffing being hired to address the logjam.

HHS Director Amanda Larson noted that the flood gates have opened in terms of public assistance requests, as well as health insurance applications — with this area alone seeing a 20% increase in appointments.  She also noted the increase in mental health services requests, from chemical health treatment placements to detox and civil commitments.

Larson was quick to point out that these positions would be monitored closely and could be managed through attrition in the future to return to pre-pandemic staffing levels as dictated by caseloads.

County Attorney Kathleen Heaney spoke of the staffing needs in her department as a result of programs such as school truancy coming back online.  In addition, the courts are adding additional calendars to work through the backlog of cases that have been postponed over the past year due to courtroom restrictions.

She noted a 14% increase in felony case referrals from 2019-2020 as being an area that requires attention, as well as a big increase in the number of high profile cases, including the county’s first mentally ill and dangerous person case designation in a decade.

In a truly shocking statistic, Heaney shared that her attorneys have 145 trial settings scheduled between now and November, whereas in a pre-covid average year they would do 12-18 trials the entire year.  Just the sheer number of cases will require additional staffing to attend to each case through trial or other resolution.

The commissioners were understanding of the unique nature of the staffing needs, but also cautioned that the growth in employees needs to be monitored closely so the government can operate as efficiently as possible.

“In good faith, we are trying to identify operation needs that are covid-19 related and will dissipate over time,” Administrator Bruce Messelt said.  “Adding staffing has some risks, but it is an area that should be explored.”

Foster Care Month

The board adopted a resolution proclaiming May 2021 and Foster Care Month and received an update from HHS regarding the naming of Foster Family of the Year award winners.

Sherburne is home to 127 child and adult providers for foster care and the HHS staff named 2021 Child Foster Care honorees (Terry and Wendy Bohn) and Adult Foster Care honorees (Dave and Vicky Warren).  In addition, a young woman named Angel was introduced as the 2021 Foster Child of the Year award recipient and she shared her story of spending nearly six years in foster care, including details about the incredible impact county staff had on her life.

Covid-19

Nicole Ruhoff presented the pandemic update to the board and noted that MN continues to do a good job with testing and both the state and county have experienced a sharp decline in positivity rate since the beginning of April.

She noted that while the school 14 day formula is declining across most sites, there are still a number of districts in the caution area with a considerable number of cases.

Hospital capacity numbers show that anyone who needs care is able to get it, while the county continues to make progress on its vaccination rates.

Approximately 40% of eligible county residents have been fully vaccinated, while that number jumps to 74% of residents aged 65 and over (compared to 88% in MN).

Vaccination clinics are still being held in the county, with many of the doses being administered to people coming back for their second shot of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine.

Ruhoff also noted that Sherburne County was selected as a pilot site for a new state effort in reaching out to people about potential vaccination interest via email and cell phone numbers.  The contact information is coming from the State of MN EOC and was not provided by Sherburne County.  Residents are able to opt out of additional contacts if they are not interested or they can receive information to help them get appointments scheduled or questions answered.