Supervisors approve budget, quarantine guidelines

GRUNDY CENTER- The Grundy County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved its fiscal year 2021 budget and quarantine guidelines for county employees during Monday morning’s regular meeting in the courtroom.

The supervisors discussed whether they should enact orders for employees to work from home or alternate who is in the office due to the Coronavirus outbreak but ultimately decided it should be left up to department heads to decide.

Don Kampman, the head of the IT/GIS department, said he would be experimenting with Zoom meetings and other forms of remote communication.

“Thank you for your due diligence in looking into all of this,” Board Chairwoman Barb Smith said.

Smith added that she believed it would only be “a matter of time” before COVID-19 is confirmed in Grundy County due to cases in two neighboring counties, and she told the other supervisors that they would need to decide which services are considered essential.

In addition, Smith expressed concern that residents would think they didn’t have to pay property taxes because of the situation, and County Treasurer Brenda Noteboom reiterated that she would not be providing refunds to people who have already paid.

“If I don’t set some sort of standard, I’m going to have everybody wanting their money back,” Noteboom said.

The board then moved into a discussion of self-quarantine policy and paid sick leave. Assistant County Engineer Steve Cox asked what people who had already paid for vacations were supposed to do, and County Auditor Rhonda Deters responded that the pandemic has forced people to make difficult decisions.

“Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape, so we all have to be flexible in this situation,” Deters said. “I think we have to bear in mind that we’re using taxpayer money, and the taxpayers are watching us now, probably more than they ever have before.”

The final motion stipulates that any county employee who travels out of state or has been advised by a health professional to self-quarantine must do so and will be entitled to 14 days of emergency paid sick leave. An original motion included a clause requiring self-quarantine if family members had traveled out of state, but it was later removed.

County Engineer Gary Mauer opened two bids for farm-to-market granular resurfacing: one from Breuning Rock Products for $96,997.75 and another from PCI for $97,875. The board voted to table bids before taking further action, and they also approved plans and specifications for bridge M-10, which has been closed since 2017 and will be reimbursed by federal funds. The board voted 5-0 to approve the secondary roads for the upcoming fiscal year.

IN OTHER BUSINESS, the board:

·      Approved a salary increase of 2.98 percent for elected officials.

·      Received updates on board and committee meetings.