The Sherburne County Board met Tuesday morning and heard from staff about ongoing efforts in COVID-19 mitigation.
HSS Director Amanda Larson detailed the county’s ongoing role in vaccinating residents while trying to keep abreast of all of the changes in priority status coming from the State of Minnesota.
New guidelines provide for entities to distribute 90% of their initial shots of the two dose series within 72 hours and 100% must be used within a seven day window. If the provider, in this case Sherburne Public Health, doesn’t meet that threshold, then their next week’s allocation can be lowered or rescinded completely.
Larson noted that the county has administered 99% of the vaccines they have been allocated, while still holding onto the vaccine needed to provide the second shot of the two dose series.
The county has significant vaccination clinics scheduled for Feb. 9 and 16 to give those second doses to individuals within priority 1A, mostly first responders and health care workers.
Last week, as Larson and her staff felt they were getting close to finishing offering the shot to everyone within that first priority group, the state threw another curveball and added Personal Care Attendants to the list. The Minnesota Dept. of Health provided Sherburne County with a list of 900 individuals that could qualify under that new designation, requiring Larson and staff to sort through the names. By eliminating duplicate entries and people who were already vaccinated, staff culled the list to 300 individuals who would qualify, all of whom were offered vaccinations this week.
Ages 65+
Another area where the landscape continues to shift is in the vaccination of individuals ages 65 and over. Just two weeks ago, the state launched nine pilot sites and struggled to find the most efficient registration system. It began with a first come, first serve website that encountered difficulties as thousands of Minnesotans tried to simultaneously sign up, causing the site to crash. Last week, it moved to a lottery system and this week, the program was reduced to just two sites, as county public health agencies and primary health care providers are now taking the lead in trying to distribute the doses to this group.
Sherburne County staff again pivoted and were able to provide appointments this week to 100 residents who met this criteria. In the weeks ahead, it is expected that the county will be able to increase this allocation.
Larson noted that the most expeditious way for individuals ages 65 and up to signal interest in receiving the vaccine from the county is to sign up on the website. There, residents will find a COVID-19 Vaccine Interest Form to submit, indicating their desire to come to the government center for the shot. Interested parties will be contacted as doses become available and people are already flooding the site with requests. As of Monday this week, there were 179 requests logged in the system. By Tuesday mid-day, that number grew to 1,129.
In response to a query from commissioners about serving those individuals without internet access, it was noted that a paper registration form is being looked at as a possibility.
Most weeks, the county is not notified until late Friday, usually after business hours, regarding how many doses it will have for the next week. This makes scheduling a very fast paced exercise at the start of the following week.
Despite the constant change, the commissioners lauded the efforts of the county staff members to keep the vaccine flowing.
“You folks are doing a fabulous job, it’s like we are in a 15 round fight and they [State of MN] keep changing the rules between rounds,” commented Felix Schmiesing. “In Sherburne County, we’re playing by the rules they lay out for us.”
Business Relief
Assistant Administrator Dan Weber was again before the board to provide an update on business relief efforts, as well as to introduce a pair of new opportunities for business owners.
In the latest round of legislation, Sherburne County was allocated $1.877 million in funds from the state to mitigate the business losses caused by the latest closure orders from Gov. Tim Walz.
At that time, the county set guidelines focused on actual losses incurred in November and December of 2020, as well as a cap of $10,000 per business in an effort to help as many as possible. This resulted in 89 grants being approved for a total award of $637,000.
A total of 43 applications were denied, mostly either because they were home based businesses (which were not eligible for that round) or because the business could not demonstrate a loss in those months compared to 2019 numbers.
Because there are additional funds still available, Weber proposed two programs to expedite the remaining funds to businesses.
One would make home based businesses eligible, while the other would allow for businesses who did not receive CARES funding to now be eligible for the county program if they lost revenue in 2020.
For example, some businesses never applied for the original CARES Act funding and did not have losses in November and December of the last year. However, they may have suffered major losses, sometimes in the six figure range, for the entire year of 2020 and would now therefore be eligible for funds.
The commissioners quickly approved both programs, which will be open immediately and accept applications through Feb. 12. Interested businesses are encouraged to visit the county website to view the guidelines. Weber also noted that businesses whose applications were rejected because of failing to meet certain criteria will be automatically reviewed for eligibility in the new programs.
River Crossing
In transportation related news, the board was updated by Public Works Director Andrew Witter and several MnDOT staffers regarding ongoing studies looking at traffic congestion in and around the Northwest metro area.
Legislation passed in 2019 was the impetus behind reviewing traffic plans and previous Mississippi River crossing studies, some of which date back to 1989.
Highways included in the current review include 101, 169, 610 and 10.
The current study is considered a fact finding investigation and will not include final recommendations for a river crossing. It will focus on clarifying the level of congestion on the roadways and developing concepts which may alleviate some of the issues.
A variety of data was shared with the board, including that in the past 20 years the area has seen a 30% increase in population and is expected to grow another 20% in the next similar time period.
Trip data, future road improvements and current levels and causes of congestion are all being studied as part of the current project.
Commissioners did note that three separate crossing studies are already underway, including the CMRP and the St. Cloud APO.
Schmiesing also pointed out past studies, such as the one in Clear Lake, which resulted in lawsuits and some property being purchased because of hardship. Yet, as a result, no crossing was pursued and the plan was never funded fully through construction.
As a group, the board encouraged MN DOT staff to not just continue doing studies, but to bring a plan to fruition that would decrease congestion on the roads.
