Commissioners declare pandemic disaster

After seeking advice from county attorney Joe Abler, the Antelope County Commissioners approved issuing a COVID-19 pandemic disaster declaration for Antelope County, beginning Jan. 31, and continuing, per recommendation of the Nebraska Association of County Officials.

The attorney was called after county clerk, Lisa Payne, suggested the declaration be backdated to January. After further discussion and Abler's input, the declaration was approved unanimously and dated April 14, but covered disaster conditions that began as early as Jan. 31.

The county leaders authorized payment of a $10,000 claim for a refrigerated semi-trailer to serve as a makeshift morgue in the case of a COVID-19 death surge in the county.

As commissioners prepared to approve monthly claims at a meeting last Tuesday, April 14, commissioner Carolyn Pedersen asked a claim be separated from the vendor claims that would be approved en masse.

Claims were not reviewed individually by each commissioner, as has been recent practice, due to the meeting being held via video conference, with commissioner Eli Jacob and chairman Charlie Henery present in the meeting room, along with Payne. Commissioners Dean Smith, Regina Krebs and Pedersen participated remotely via Zoom. Sheriff Bob Moore, county attorney Joe Abler, zoning administrator Liz Doerr and road department officials Casey Dittrich and Aaron Boggs were also present in person at various times.

As he called the meeting to order, Henery announced the doors to the courthouse were open, with the 10-person rule in force, and public comment could be made through the Zoom chat feature and would be reviewed at a later time.

Pedersen said she planned to abstain on a vote for a claim payable to Boyd's Electric, indicating Moore had asked her husband, Boyd Pedersen to find a truck and he did.

She stressed that she had nothing to do with the purchase, which had already been made.

"It is for a reefer that went up to the sheriff's office," she said. "The mortuaries did not have, if it (COVID-19) hits what they are predicting, there is not enough cold storage for bodies, at the mortuaries, so that's what this reefer will be used for. Bob (Moore) contacted Boyd. I had nothing to do with it. They worked it out. Boyd found a trailer for him. It's already bought and it's already up there (at sheriff's lot), ready to go."

Moore said he had a conversation with the morticians.

"We are preparing for the worst both at the fair grounds and at the sheriff's office, and hoping for the best," he said.

"I had the conversation with Bob, and to be prepared on what we are looking at is very important," Henery said. "The morticians were the ones (who) were requesting this. Pray to God that we don't need it."

"I thought that really explained it well and it would be horrible to have that happen to us, and not be ready," Payne said, referring to an email received from the North Central District Health Department, "regarding planning for the inevitable on some of this COVID-19 end result."

The email referenced by Payne had come from Heidi Hostert at NCDHD, and was sent Friday evening, April 10. It included an estimate in the nine counties served by the district of "approximately 300 deaths relating to COVID-19." It cited a .67% fatality rate, multiplied by the entire population in the nine counties – about 46,000 people.

On Wednesday afternoon, Payne told the Advocate-Messenger she received a phone call from the health department, indicating the email message was for planning purposes, not intended for the general public. Payne said she planned to contact two other local newspapers she had shared it with, asking them to "rescind" articles.

NCDHD clarified the data released and intent in sending the message in a press release issued Wednesday afternoon after information appeared on social media.

In a phone conversation Monday, April 20, Carol Doolittle, public relations coordinator for NCDHD, stressed the 300 potential deaths listed in the email was a "worst-case" scenario, "if nobody followed the directed health measures" in effect.

Doolittle said there is a lot of data that is constantly changing, and it is difficult to forecast models, "models are calculated the best they can."

Henery opined the county can recoup some of the trailer expense in the future.

"We are probably going to take a hit on it, but it's not like it's going to be zero. We'll still get some funds back out of it if we put it on Big Iron or whatever," Henery said. "We paid $10,000 for this reefer and two years down the road, maybe we can get eight out of it or maybe we can get 12 out of it, I don't know. It depends on if it's used or not for what our purpose is going to be."

Jacob made a motion to pay the claim. When no one immediately replied to Henery's request for a second, he seconded the motion. The motion carried 4-0 on a roll call vote, with Pedersen abstaining.

The remaining vendor claims were approved as a whole, 5-0, on a Jacob motion with Smith providing the second. After both motions carried, Krebs asked for options to change the one approving the large batch of claims.

"I think the board motion needs to include the dollar amount, since we don't have actual signatures yet...for audit purposes," she said.

Smith questioned if the amount would be $498,701.93, which was affirmed by Payne.

Krebs then asked the clerk to include the amount in the minutes.

"I think what I will do for in the motion, is I'll list them (by fund)," she said. "Will that be okay, list exactly how much for those individual funds are spending?"

Krebs asked, "Inside the motion that was made to pay them?"

Payne replied affirmatively. No further board action was taken on the clarification.

The commissioners also approved payroll claims, in the amount of $248,434.54, after a 15-minute break to allow Payne to complete computing the total.