The Wright County Supervisors discussed COVID, community services, and winter snow removal during the regular meeting on Monday, November 29.
Starting with a COVID-19 update from Wright County Public Health Administrator Sandy McGrath, it was reported that new COVID-19 cases have dropped a little from the previous week, with 33 new cases reported and five people, all non-vaccinated, in the hospital.
"I hope we got through the holiday without going back up into another wave," said McGrath.
In total, 2,690 positive cases have been confirmed in the county and 49 COVID related deaths have been reported.
In vaccinations, the county is still working on pediatric Pfizer clinics. The vaccinated population is up to 52.8% this week, increasing just .1% from the week prior.
"That is just so slow, but we're doing a lot of boosts, which is good," said McGrath.
In spite of slow increase in the vaccinated population, the county has kept busy distributing shots. Wright County has administered more than 13,000 vaccine shots this year, ranking them 32 in the state for shots administered.
McGrath also reported that Wright County Public Health's Facebook page was temporarily put in "Facebook jail" last week when somebody reported a post detailing the times for a vaccination clinic as "violating community standards." This prevented them from announcing the time and day for their upcoming clinic.
"We were blocked from posting anything on our page until we worked through the hoops," said McGrath.
While the department was able to get through the moderation process by Monday, the incident did emphasize the vulnerability in using the social media service as the primary way to reach out to people in the county.
Going into the holiday season, McGrath continues to encourage people to get their vaccine and warned people to be extra cautious about getting tested if they start showing symptoms. While take-home tests are widely available, people that suspect they might have COVID are advised to still get tested at a clinic to make sure they haven't received a false negative.
"It's better to follow through with a PCR test and know for sure," said McGrath.
The county also met with Jamey Whitney, the Executive Director of Upper Des Moines Opportunity, and Alisa Schlief, the Family and Community Services Director, for an annual update on the community services they provide to the county.
The pandemic has had a continuing effect on their services, particularly during the time where they operated without an office open to the public. Communicating with families in need and getting to them has been an ongoing challenge, but things have picked up again since restrictions have lifted.
"I think now that our doors are back open, we've seen an increase in families coming in for services," said Schlief.
Upper Des Moines Opportunity provided services to 1,054 individuals in 479 households in Wright County this year, with expenditures reaching $294,936. The biggest area of support they provide is emergency utility assistance, helping people in crisis with heating bills. They also offer water bill assistance and food programs for those in need.
The organization is asking the county for a $14,062 donation, which, considering the six figure return, the supervisors acknowledged as a "pretty good bang for the buck" and will consider the request at budget time.
In other business, the supervisors appointed Brenda Maxheimer to serve as a civil process server for the county. In the engineering report, County Engineer Adam Clemons updated the supervisors on blading progress on the secondary roads and reported that they will be starting some burning in ditches to clear them out.
Clemons also brought to the supervisors a request from a county resident to add a county road to the snow plow route. The road in question, northeast of Eagle Grove, has no residents on it and is currently identified as a no-snow removal route, saving the county the time and cost of plowing a rural road that sees sparse use.
The county will monitor the road to see if its usage would justify winter plowing.
