(Spirit Lake)– A growing number of COVID exposures among employees at the Dickinson County Courthouse was a topic of considerable discussion at today’s (Tues.) Board of Supervisors meeting. The county’s Planning and Zoning, Environmental Health and Engineer’s Offices, which share a common space, are the latest to be affected by someone testing positive for the virus. Planning and Zoning Administrator David Kohlhaase expressed concern over a policy requiring the office to be closed for an extended period of time as a result…
“The thing that’s going to kill us in our office is if you’re telling us we have to stay away for 14 days, I don’t know if that’s fair to the public and the people we service. I’ve gotten calls already. I mean we’ve got people, and, you know, maybe it’s poor planning on their behalf. But you know, they want to start things, want to start projects, don’t have their permit, etcetera. And to tell these folks that we’re going to be out of the office for 14 days. You know, I don’t how we perform. And so when it comes to essential and with the economy and the activity of businesses and contractors that do things in this county, it’s important that we can issue those permits to give them the go ahead to get going.”
While visitors to the courthouse are required to wear masks, employees are highly recommended to wear a mask whenever social distancing isn’t possible. Most of today’s (Tues.) discussion surrounded on whether or not employees should also be mandated to wear them. But the supervisors stopped short of that in a new policy Chairman Bill Leopold outlined…
“Strongly recommend a mask; someone shows up in your office with COVID it’s closed down to be cleaned; everybody in that office gets tested; if they test negative, they can come back as soon as that room is fit to come back to; if they do have the COVID they stay away 10 days until they’re symptom free.”
The supervisors will present the updated policy to department heads in a joint meeting Wednesday morning.
