Washington supervisors hear report on COVID-19 in county

WASHINGTON – For months, the Washington County Board of Supervisors has been focusing on COVID-19 at its weekly board meetings. At their meeting Tuesday, board members heard the latest Washington County update from Public Health Administrator Danielle Pettit-Majewski who reported that to date there have been 292 positive cases in the county and 265 of those have recovered.

The population of the county is around 22,000.

Pettit-Majewski said that 11 people from the county have died from the virus in Washington County, and 175 have died in the 17-county Region Five which includes Washington County.

There are currently 60 hospitalizations in the region, 521 available hospital beds, 193 available ventilators and 15 patients on ventilators, up from nine last week.

The county Department of Public Health is providing schools with a rolling 14-day average of positivity as they prepare their return to learn plans.

In Washington County, that percentage was 6.7 percent as of Aug. 3.

Supervisor Jack Seward Jr. said that when the pandemic hit in March, federal guidelines allowed county employees to work from home and receive two-thirds of their salary, but the supervisors voted to allow full salary payments. He said now that the courthouse is open he would like to address that policy at the next board meeting.

Culvert Extension

The board approved a resolution to accept a bid of $198,170 from Iowa Bridge and Culvert of Washington to install a single box culvert on Old White Way east of Highway 218. The estimate for the project was $185,000 and the bid was the only one submitted.

County Engineer Jacob Thorius said that was probably because of the size of the project and the timeline for completing the project in 2020.

Other Business

In other business, the supervisors:

' Approved a personnel pay rate change for Frederick Engel in the Conservation Department from $23.91 per hour to $24.25 per hour and

' Acknowledged the quarterly report of the sheriff's office.