Cook County Commissioners held a special meeting June 2 with only two items on their agenda.
Commissioners opened their meeting with their weekly Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Incident Command team update from Cook County Public Health Coordinator Grace Grinager and Cook County Emergency Commander Mike Keyport.
The EOC performs multiagency coordination including acquiring, allocating and finding resources, managing and distributing information, and establishing priorities among various incident sites.
Grinager reported that as of June 1 there had been 25,2208 positive cases of COVID-19 in Minnesota. Of those, 19,441 people were out of quarantine and were no longer isolated at home. Grinager said 1,050 Minnesotans had died from the coronavirus, and she added that to date, there have been no confirmed COVID-19 cases in Cook County.
In addition to the preparation the EOC is doing for a potential COVID-19 outbreak, Mike Keyport said he is now receiving updates about the civil unrest occurring through the region and state.
Keyport said that as of March 13, 2020, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz had issued 67 Emergency Executive Orders dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, and he has issued six more emergency executive orders since the civil unrest that started with the murder of George Floyd.
Following the recent at times unruly demonstrations in Duluth, Virginia, Grand Rapids and other areas in the Northland, Mike said a meeting was called last Sunday night with some incident command team members to discuss what could be done if something like that occurred in the county.
If a large demonstration was to occur here that got out of hand, Keyport said Sheriff Pat Eliasen informed the other members that his staff isn’t big enough to handle a large uprising, but help could be called in from Lake County.
In ending his report, Mike said some good news included the county now has plenty of PPE’s in place for a COVID-19 outbreak and there are now mental health resources available to anyone in the public needing help.
Commissioner Dave Mills commented on a potential outbreak of violence occurring in Cook County, “We have a pretty strong, tightknit community up here,” he said.
Interim County Administrator Rena Rogers provided an update about the travel advisory. She said she had met with the business group who, “felt it met their messaging,” and she noted several people had thanked the county board for keeping the travel advisory in the public eye.
As far as opening the courthouse building, Rena said the courts had asked the county to open for some court cases and Auditor/ Treasurer Braidy Powers had inquired about how to handle upcoming elections.
Also, Rena said courthouse staff have said they have been pretty comfortable working remotely, and the board should remember that when discussing future building projects to make more room for workers.
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