EM Village Board meets by Zoom, extends COVID-19 response plan
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
By LeAnn R. Ralph
ELK MOUND — It was a “sign of the times,” so to speak.
The Elk Mound Village Board met remotely April 1 using the online platform Zoom and agreed to keep the village’s COVID-19 response plan in place and evaluate it again in two weeks.
For those who are not familiar with it, Zoom allows multiple people who are in different places to see and hear each other using their computers or smartphones.
While governmental bodies are exempt from the “Safer at Home” order issued March 24 by Governor Tony Evers and Andrea Palm, secretary-designee of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, meeting remotely is allowed under the state’s Open Meetings Law and allows elected officials to reduce travel and maintain social distancing to help slow the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
“All need to do their part,” said Elk Mound Police Chief Chad Weinberger.
The police chief noted coronavirus infections had not yet peaked, and that as of April 1, Dunn County had three diagnosed cases of COVID-19, with one person who has recovered.
According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services website, as of April 1, the state had a total of 1,550 positive test results with 398 hospitalizations and 24 deaths. By April 3, there were 1,912 positive cases and 37 deaths.
As of April 1, Milwaukee County had the largest number of positive test results at 780 with 11 deaths, followed by Dane County with 215 positive test results and two deaths. Waukesha County had the third highest number of positive test results at 107 with one death.
Essential businesses are exempt from “Safer at Home,” and a “most frequently asked questions” document posted by the state helps define essential businesses, Police Chief Weinberger said.
While bait shops are in a gray area for essential businesses, tobacco/e-cigarette shops and shoe stores are non-essential, he said.
Police Chief Weinberger said he was recommending the village’s COVID-19 response plan stay in place for now and be re-evaluated in two weeks at the village board’s April 15 meeting.
Pat Hahn, village clerk treasurer, noted the governor’s order is in effect until the end of the month.
Safer at Home expires at 8 a.m. April 24, Police Chief Weinberger said.
Elk Mound should hold the status quo and then evaluate the plan in two weeks and decide whether the plan should be stricter than it is now, he said.
Elk Mound’s COVID-19 response plan closed the municipal building and requires delivery drivers to leave packages at the door, asks village residents to make payments by dropping them in the slot at the village hall and suggests residents obtain absentee ballots from HYPERLINK “http://www.myvote.gov/”www.myvote.gov or call the clerk’s office for assistance.
Under the governor’s Safer at Home order, all libraries in the state are closed, and since the village’s community center is in the same building as the Elk Mound library, the village’s COVID-19 response plan limits users of the community center to no more than nine attendees, and if that is not possible, asks that the event be canceled.
Large gatherings of people are prohibited by Safer at Home, and groups of less than 10 are asked to maintain social distancing of at least six feet to reduce the possibility of close contact.
KT Gallagher, director of Dunn County Public Health, defines close contact as being within six feet of someone for more than 10 minutes.
The Safer at Home order asks people to confine their total contacts to five people until April 24 as well — not five people per day, but five people total.
Elk Mound’s COVID-19 response plan also requires all non-essential public works tasks that do not allow social distancing cease for the duration that the plan is in effect.
Elk Mound has no confirmed cases of COVID-19, and the village is “doing well,” Police Chief Weinberger said.
The village board should evaluate the plan at the next meeting and decide whether to sunset the plan at 8 a.m. April 24 or decide whether other measurer are needed, he said.
The Elk Mound Village Board unanimously approved a motion to continue with the Elk Mound COVID-19 response plan and re-evaluate it at the April 15 meeting.
All village board members attended the meeting on Zoom.
Voting in favor of the motion were Steven Abraham, village president, and village trustees Jesse Jenson, Rebecca Livingston, Deborah Creaser-Kipp, Greg Kipp, Terry Stamm and Paula Turner.
Other business
In other business, the Elk Mound Village Board:
• Received an introduction by Michael Jenson Jr., who was on the April 7 ballot for the Elk Mound Board of Education.
• Learned that Abraham planned to refer to the public safety committee the issue of whether to reduce the speed limit near the Elk Mound Lions Club Park from 35 miles per hour to 25 mph.
• Learned from Greg Kipp, the village board’s representative to the Elk Mound fire board, that there had not been a meeting of the fire board but that perhaps he would have a report for the village board at the next meeting.
