Board Discusses COVID Vaccine
by Joseph Schany
“We continue to stay pretty low with our county positivity rate,” began Sarah Strohman, Public Health director, updating the Palo Alto County Board of Supervisors on COVID numbers during Tuesday morning’s meeting. “Our current positivity rate in Palo Alto County is 2 percent. We currently have five active cases in the county.”
According to Strohman, to date 1,179 total cases of COVID and 21 deaths have been reported in Palo Alto County, and the numbers seem to have become manageable.
“I am super happy about that,” she said.
Strohman discussed the ongoing push for county-wide vaccinations in order to reach the desired levels for herd immunity, noting the number of individuals requesting the vaccine has decreased significantly.
Supervisors Approve Urban Renewal Expansion
By Joseph Schany - | May 4, 2021
by Joseph Schany
The Palo Alto County Board of Supervisors held a public hearing Tuesday, April 27 at the Courthouse Boardroom in Emmetsburg for the designation of the expanded Palo Alto County Industrial Park Urban Renewal Area and on the urban renewal plan amendment. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the meeting was also available telephonically.
“We are adding the area where we are building the Palo Alto County Public Safety Center and we are putting that property into our Urban Renewal Area,” said Carmen Moser, Palo Alto County Auditor. “The rest is for all the roads and bridges projects our county engineer will complete. We will be using tax increment financing (TIF) money, which is a funding source for us to use from the new valuation from our wind turbines”
Board Denies CAFO Based on Neighbor Proximity
By Joseph Schany - | May 4, 2021
by Joseph Schany
The Palo Alto County Supervisors would deny the conditional use permit for a hog confinement near Greattinger during Tuesday’s regular session board meeting. The permit for a proposed 2,499 hog capacity finishing barn was denied because the site did not meet Palo Alto County’s Good Neighbor policy of a half-mile distance from residents.
“The site does have one neighbor within the half-mile, and currently the Good Neighbor policy waiver has not been signed,” said Aletha King, Zoning, presenting details of Monday night’s zoning board decision to the supervisors. “The zoning board denied the permit because of the distance with the neighbor and the waiver not being signed.”
Board Reviews Ongoing COVID Vaccine Plans
By Joseph Schany - | Jan 25, 2021
by Joseph Schany
“We currently have 43 active cases of COVID-19 in Palo Alto County,” said Sarah Strohman, Palo Alto County Public Health, updating the Board of Supervisors during Tuesday morning’s regular session meeting. “We’ve had 904 total cases and there have been nine deaths as Monday, Jan. 18.”
According to Strohman, Palo Alto County’s current 7-day positivity rate for the virus is 6 percent, while the 14-day percentage is 10 percent.
“We’ve come down from last week,” said Strohman. “We did hit a little bit of a peak last week but coming down nicely now.”
Supervisors Make Approvals for New Year, Discuss COVID-19 Vaccination Plan
By Joseph Schany - | Jan 15, 2021
OATH OF OFFICE Elected Palo Alto County Officials completed the Oath of Office and were sworn in at Monday morning’s first 2021 Board of Supervisors meeting. Above, from left: Carmen Moser, County Auditor; Lynn Schultes, County Sheriff; Roger Faulstick, Board of Supervisors; and Ron Graettinger, Board of Supervisors. Joseph Schany photo
by Joseph Schany
The Palo Alto County Board of Supervisors met for the first time in the new year Monday, Jan. 4 to make approvals for calendar year 2021.
A new Board Chair and Chair Pro Tem were chosen by the group, with unanimous approval to Linus Solberg for 2021 chairman and Keith Wirtz as pro tem.