Grand Forks officials are set to extend a COVID-19 declaration of emergency for what might be one of the last times.
City Council members, acting on Monday, March 8, as the Committee of the Whole, provisionally extended the city’s state of emergency for another 90 days, which means it would expire on June 30. They’re set to make a final decision next Monday.
“I think in the next three months we’ll be well on our way to be vaccinated for those who still want to be,” City Administrator Todd Feland told council members.
Like similar declarations during flood season, the pandemic declaration makes it easier for the city to receive state and federal aid. It also forms the legal basis for several further declarations by Mayor Brandon Bochenski and former Mayor Mike Brown that, for instance, allow restaurants to sell alcohol to-go alongside food orders.
The council’s unanimous vote to tentatively approve the measure came a few hours after city staff announced that their combined vaccination program with Altru Health System was moving into "Phase 1C,” which means people who work in public transit, blood banks, grocery stores and several other fields are now eligible to receive the vaccine.
A few hours before that, Grand Forks Health Officer Joel Walz formally rescinded his countywide mask requirement after saying he would do as much last week, assuming new cases, hospitalizations and other metrics used to measure the virus’ spread and severity stayed relatively low, which they did.
In related news Monday, council members:
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Tabled Bochenski’s recommendation to appoint Becky Ronkowski to the Grand Forks Library Board. Ronkowski listed elementary educator, UND graduate school instructor, and piano teacher as her work experience, as well as a bevy of volunteer positions at Grand Forks nonprofits and the Dem-NPL political party. City Council President Dana Sande, who suggested tabling Ronkowski’s appointment to the board, told the Herald that the packet listing her qualifications came too late on Monday for him to make an informed choice.
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Tentatively agreed to a plan to pave roadways and install streetlights at the Oscarville industrial park in northern Grand Forks. The park popped up before the city annexed it, which meant it quickly outgrew its minimal public infrastructure and trucks would often get stuck in the dirt roads servicing it. The bulk of the project will be paid for by the companies that own land adjacent to the project, with exceptions on certain city streets, where 80% of the cost will be borne by the city. In all, City Hall engineers estimate the city will need to pay about $1.93 million for its share of the plan.
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March 09, 2021 at 08:39AM
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Grand Forks panel extends COVID-19 state of emergency - Grand Forks Herald
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