At their Monday morning meeting, the Wright County Board of Supervisors discussed their priorities for COVID relief money received through the American Rescue Plan. The county will get $2.4 million total, and has already received half of that. (Individual towns in the county are also receiving funds).
Supervisor Dean Kluss said, “We have identified childcare in Wright County as our number one priority for this money.” The board discussed how daycare centers in Clarion, Eagle Grove and Belmond all have unique needs to be addressed and that they are committed to working with each of them. Chairman Karl Helgevold noted that they are looking for sustainable solutions for childcare and not to simply increase wages for workers, which would only be viable for a short period of time.
Other priorities for funds discussed included upgrading the broadband at Lake Cornelia Park. Conservation Director Eric Rector noted that they intend to have fiber optic cable installed so they can transmit 100 MB service to the campground. He added that this is important since they saw a significant increase in campers in the past year, including people that are trying to work while at the campground. Currently, the campground should have 25 MB service, but Rector said recent speed tests showed about 1 MB service.
The board also discussed using funds for lead waterline mitigation around the courthouse, generators at the courthouse and jail, Public Health’s Stop the Bleed program and better accessibility to county DMV services. They added that they are still seeking clarification on exactly how funds can be used and want to avoid a clawback in future years. They will be attending the Iowa State Association of Counties Conference later this month, which they noted will provide additional information on COVID funds. They also invite the public’s input and comment on ideas for fund use.
In her weekly COVID update, Sandy McGrath noted that the case count for the county is up an additional 35 cases in the last week for a total of 1,983. She noted that these are predominantly Delta cases and that she is seeing larger groups of younger people test positive. She estimated that about 90% of new positives are among unvaccinated individuals and that the vaccinated positives usually come from people living with an unvaccinated positive. County-wide vaccination numbers are at 47.4%.
McGrath added that local public health will still be requiring contact tracing and quarantining, regardless of if a case is found at a school or in the general public. “A positive COVID case will always isolate, and exposed individuals will be asked to quarantine for the CDC recommended amount of time,” she said.
Eric Simonson, Wright County Attorney, appeared before the board to discuss the Schroeder property on the northeast side of Lake Cornelia. The family is interested in acquiring some property that they have been maintaining. Simonson recommended that the board not take action on vacating their right-of-way property by the road until the Schroeders have handled the matter with the state, who owns most of that property.
In other business, the board received and signed paperwork for drainage district #194 lateral #1 repairs with Rognes Brothers, including the contract, bonds and notice of award. They had bid $157,492 for the project. The supervisors discussed the lease on the county farm. The current lease terminates in February. They elected to advertise bids for a 2-year lease on the farm, to be received by October 1. Look for an advertisement for the lease in the county newspapers in September. They approved the first reading of Ordinance #62 extending the local option sales and service tax for the city of Galt and Goldfield and the unincorporated area of Wright County. This measure had been voted on and passed in the last election but the ordinance part to make it final was never completed.
