At the Monday morning of the Wright County Board of Supervisors, Sandy McGrath gave an update from the Emergency Operations Center on COVID-19 in the county. At the meeting of the EOC last Thursday, the county’s superintendents joined in. Eagle Grove Supt. Jess Toliver discussed their situation. After many teachers and students were quarantined last week, Eagle Grove schools were canceled on Thursday and Friday. The school will be doing online remote learning throughout this week. McGrath noted they will reassess the situation at the end of the week.
To detect additional COVID cases, the county also set up a pop-up test site last Wednesday at the elementary school in Eagle Grove. McGrath said that of around 200 people tested, 12 positive cases were found. She explained that those 12 people had already been quarantining, so she does not anticipate more cases to come out of that round of positives.
As of Monday morning, the county has had 592 cases with 529 recovered. McGrath added that over the last 5 days, there was 23 positive cases.
The board approved the hiring of Amanda Meyer as a Finance Manager in the Auditor’s office. Auditor Betty Ellis noted that this is a new position that will be responsible for working on budgets, cash reports and valuations, in addition to other auditor’s office duties. The position starts out at $39,000/yr with reviews and possible raises at 6 and 12 months.
The board discussed damages for tree removal along an open ditch in drainage district #14, northeast of Clarion in Grant township. Drainage Clerk Courtney Stewart explained that Joe Harrah, who is in charge of the drainage district’s brush and weed control, took out some trees along a ditch on Jim Radke’s land. Radke is now asking to be reimbursed for the cost of the removed trees as they were purposefully planted. The issue at hand is whether or not trees are allowed to be planted that close to the ditch. Chairman Dean Kluss noted that he has spoken to Dave Johnson, their drainage attorney, who advised that they need to investigate the plans and specs for that ditch to see what is allowed. The matter was tabled for now so additional information can be sought.
