County takes stock of pandemic resources

The Carlton County board of commissioners met Tuesday, April 14 with all commissioners participating: Dick Brenner and Gary Peterson attended via telephone conferencing while Marv Bodie, Tom Proulx and Mark Thell were physically present, but socially distanced.

County attorney Lauri Ketola read a portion of Governor Tim Walz’s declaration in response to the deepening COVID-19 pandemic, stating that the county board meetings could utilize telephone or computer videoconferencing to conduct county business. For personal safety, commissioners, county staff, reporters and the public could participate without physically being at the meeting. All votes are by a verbal roll call response.

A 25-minute delay marked the beginning of the gathering, with Peterson and Brenner struggling to use the county’s videoconferencing site, and instead finally using their phones to participate in the meeting.

“I worked with the IT department yesterday,” said a frustrated Peterson later via a phone interview with the Pine Knot News, “and today I could not make the system work.”

In keeping with the governor’s stay-at-home order, public access to county buildings is limited until at least May 4, but visits may be scheduled by appointment. Health and human services buildings are open for business with the Cloquet facility open Monday through Friday and the Moose Lake facility open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Auto licensing in Cloquet and Moose Lake continue to be closed. Applications can be completed online and licenses renewed by mail; applications may also be dropped off at the Cloquet license bureau in the Community Services Building and will be returned by mail.

The impact on the county budget is unknown at this time. The possible loss of revenues from the half-percent sales tax, for example, will not be known for another month.

“Loss of revenue will put a strain on the county budget and the county board will have to be slow to hire replacement staff until we know how long the effects of this virus last,” Brenner said. “For now it is hard to plan too far in advance. We must wait and see.”

News from our national sources has been filled with medical specialists in disease control repeatedly calling for widespread testing throughout the country in preparation for a return to a pre-epidemic lifestyle. This reporter’s questions about when an active widespread testing program will be available to our local residents were answered with “We do not know.”

“Locally we are heartened by the news that Gov. Tim Walz has announced he will commit state resources to provide necessary testing,” said Health and Human Services director Dave Lee. “A joint effort with the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota to make the thousands of tests needed throughout the state of Minnesota is in the works. We will see how quickly these tests can be available to provide the testing, tracing and seclusion effort in our area to control the spread of this virus.”

New information on the impact of the coronavirus has been posted on the county website almost daily.

“Keeping information on the site current has stretched available staff to the limit,” Genereau said. “We can only provide developing information by hiring a retired, trained former employee for 10 hours a week for a probable eight-week span of service.”

Sheriff Kelly Lake supported the request.

“We need to be on top of the information that goes out daily from the county,” Lake said. “Our citizens deserve to have consistent, fact-based material on this epidemic. I support this hire for the duration of this health crisis.”

The public information officer hours were approved unanimously by the board.

In other county news, land commissioner Greg Bernu received permission to handle the yearly sponsorship of the funds that go to the ATV and Snowmobile clubs. Each year contracts will go out to each of the clubs to be put into writing, a common practice in previous years. No big changes are anticipated.

Excess Minnesota Extension equipment is being sold or repurposed. A cattle gate with a built-in scale will be put out for bid. A one-farm seeder for planting and a no-till seeder may be available for a one-year lease to the Soil and Water Conservation District on a trial basis.

Commissioner Thell reported that work continues on the One Watershed, One Plan for a regional approach to watershed issues crossing county lines, such as the Nemadji River Basin sediment problems.

“The reduction of phosphorus in the Kettle River watershed is currently shared with a somewhat different approach in Carlton and Pine counties,” Thell said. “It is hoped that this regional plan will be more effective in resolving these issues in the future.”