9-21-20 BOC Regular Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

process for Lisa Minter and her staff. All outside agencies that have received funds will be subject to the same record keeping and audit guidelines. We will be working with the local governments, businesses, and non-profits over the next couple of months to ensure their compliance since the County is ultimately responsible for all funds that we have used from the program. Staff continues to deal with impacts from the Virus. Fifty-Seven (57) employees have been tested for the Virus and we have been notified that seven (7) have tested positive. Our operations have continued uninterrupted. By following CDC guidelines and directions from the Lee County Health Director, we have been able to avoid the spread of the virus internally. Work at home, having clients set up appointments, install protective measures that separate our employees from the public, and the use of PPE have all been factors in stopping the spread of the Virus. As we begin to open the remaining buildings that have been closed and restart many programs following these guidelines will be extremely important in protecting our citizens and employees. Overall, the number of tests being conducted, positive tests, and the activity in the Health Department related to the COVID-19 virus are going down. This trend has been occurring for about 5 weeks. If the County can avoid a spike upwards after the Labor Day holiday we will begin to restart and offer different programs that allow for safe operations on October 5, 2020. We will continue to offer more programs and begin re-opening the remaining facilities that have been closed for use, now that we are more comfortable in how to protect our employees and citizens. The departments that will be impacted the greatest on October 5 will be the Library, Parks and Recreation and Senior Services. As we develop plans over the next two weeks, I will communicate those plans to the board. There will also be press releases announcing the changes. Beaver Management Program — Dr. Bill Stone, Director Cooperative Extension of Lee County and myself recently met with representatives concerning the Beaver Management Program. As expected, we were told that the fees the County has been paying the program do not cover the costs to provide the services in Lee County. For as long as we can look back, we had been paying $4,000 for the services until the last 2 years when the annual fee increased to $6,000. Based on a study conducted by the USDA who runs the program, the services in Lee County actually cost around $20,000. The County has a choice to either let the land owners pay the fees after the $6,000 is exhausted or we can increase the annual amount we pay to cover all the expenses of the program. This would raise the fee to $20,000 per year. The attached report shows the services conducted in 2019 for Lee County. So far, in FY 2020, we are tracking on the same numbers. Reports Tax Report—Attached please find the Tax Collection Summary Report for August 2020. Community Development/Activity Summary — The Technical Review Committee Agenda for the September 24, 2020 meeting is attached. Building Inspections Report — Attached please find the permit report for August 2020.