At the regular meeting Monday morning, the Wright County Board of Supervisors heard from Sandy McGrath, Environmental Health Director, on COVID-19 measures in the county. She noted that those that tested positive at Prestage Foods are isolated at home and the facility has undergone deep cleaning. McGrath said that they are now in the surveillance and monitoring phase at Prestage.
McGrath added that the county Board of Health in cooperation with Iowa Specialty Hospital will be conducting serological testing at Prestage. Serological tests measure the amount of antibodies or proteins present in the blood when the body is responding to a specific infection, like COVID-19. This will help determine how many people were infected with COVID in the past since most cases at Prestage were asymptomatic. See the press release on this page for more information about this testing.
Colleen Meier, County Director of Communications, was at the meeting to present the bids for remodeling the Communications Center. This is necessary for both privacy and security purposes. Currently, the Comm. Center is not in compliance with state security standards. A wall needs to be installed in the entry. The plan is also to take out a raised floor to make it all one level and have some unused wiring taken out in addition to removing some walls to open up the area. There were three bids for the project received with Brian Russell of Goldfield being the low bid at $52,190. That bid was accepted. The project is planned to start in July.
Taking action on small business loans in the county, the supervisors approved a promissory note between the county and Belmond Industrial Development Corporation (BIDCO). This loan consists of one lump sum of $25,000 that BIDCO will distribute to small businesses as microloans. The loan will be for a period of 15 years with a 0% interest rate. Similar loans made to Eagle Grove and Clarion’s Economic Development branches will also be forthcoming explained Cindy Litwiller, Director of Wright County Economic Development.
McKinley Bailey with Building Families appeared before the board. Bailey asked that the supervisors reallocate $3,500 that they had previously marked to provide incentives for new in-home daycares in the county. Building Families planned to provide matching funds for that as well. Since no new daycares have opened in the last several months, the plan now is to use the money to provide bonuses to in-home daycares and daycare workers who have stayed open during this time. Bailey said that 33 people in the county are eligible for these bonuses and would receive around $250 each. The supervisors approved the reallocation. Building Families will also be contributing over $4,000 to the bonuses.
In other business, the board accepted the quarterly revenue report from the Recorder. They also conducted their conference call with Reilly Construction. Reilly’s rep said that grading was being completed at the Agri-Business Park site and paving will be taking place soon.
