By L. Parsons Navajo County Public Health Department Director Jeff Lee presented his bimonthly COVID 19 response report to the board. In it, he expressed concern for rising numbers in Navajo County. “Unfortunately,” Lee began, “I don’t have any positive news to report, the risk of exposure remains extremely high throughout the county as we continue to see a significant rise in new cases.” He continued, “We have been here before and we did a great job at slowing the spread and we can do it again but we all must be better at following the CDC recommendations.” Lee repeated the recommendations set forth by the Center for Disease Control. They include physical distancing, hand washing, wearing facial coverings and staying home when ill. He continued, “Right now, we are trending in the wrong direction, if we continue on this path, it will be just a few short weeks when we will be back in the red zone for schools and high-risk businesses. Meaning, schools will be faced with the difficult decisions whether to continue in-person learning and businesses may face additional recommendations from executive orders.” The benchmarks Lee mentioned are found on the Arizona Department of Health Services website, www.azdhs.gov. Lee said, “As you can see by those benchmark dashboards, we are trending to the ‘substantial spread’ category.” To conclude his report, Lee spoke about the newly released information concerning a COVID-19 vaccine. Pfizer has partnered with BioNTech to create and test a vaccine that has been found to have a 90 percent efficacy in humans who have no evidence of prior SARS related infections. Lee said, “The thing is, this vaccine will have to be in deep cold storage for shipping. No firm dates on wide distribution of the vaccine has been announced but Navajo County continues to plan to quickly dispense the vaccine to those who choose to get it.” Traditionally, November is named as Native American Heritage Month nationwide. This year is no exception and the declaration was made during the Board of Supervisors meeting last week. District II Supervisor Jesse Thompson read the proclamation. “The month of November is a time to celebrate the rich and diverse cultures, raise awareness about our shared history and to acknowledge the important contributions of our Native heritage.” The proclamation also encourages Navajo County residents to join in recognizing the accomplishments of the Native American community. Board Chair Jason Whiting said, “It is touching and beautiful to be able to dedicate a month to recognizing what the Native American people have done for our county. In other business, the board: * Accepted warrant and voucher reports over $1,000 for October. * Accepted constable reports for October for Show Low and Pinetop-Lakeside precincts. * Approved 50 back tax land parcels sold over the counter in the amount of $22,784.16. * Approved a request for Attorney Anti-Racketeering Revolving Funds for Snowflake football in the amount of $300. The Snowflake football program will use the funds to purchase apparel, food and other items for athletes in the program. * Approved fiscal year 2020 year end fund reconciliations in a routine procedure. * Approved a letter from the Navajo County School Superintendent Jalyn Gerlich outlining school boundaries in an annual routine procedure. No changes have been made to the school district boundaries. * Approved a contract extension with Arizona Motors Snowflake, Inc.; Arizona Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Show Low; and Show Low Ford for one additional year and setting the price and production year for 2021 vehicles. The contracts are on an as needed basis and will be extended through Dec. 9, 2021. * Awarded a contract for legal services to Moore Law, PLLC. The contract amount shall not exceed $1,200 per week and is effective for one year beginning Nov. 10. * Accepted the surplus and seized vehicles list and authorized the publishing of the notice of the same scheduling the public surplus online auction from Nov. 23 until Dec. 7. * Approved an agreement with the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office for law enforcement services in southeastern Coconino County until Dec. 23, 2023. In the event that a CCSO deputy is unable to respond to a call, NCSO will respond to their calls for service at the rate of $87 per call to be charged and reimbursed to NCSO upon receipt of an invoice. * Approved a grant contract with the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety for DUI enforcement. NCSO has been awarded $41,110 from the GOHS to mitigate personnel costs, materials and supplies including an intoxilyzer. The grant period is Oct. 1, 2020, through Sept. 30, 2021. * Approved a grant contract with the GOHS allowing deputies to patrol and enforce traffic laws on rural county highways. NCSO has been awarded the amount of $15,483 through their Police Traffic Services program, which includes $6,912 for overtime costs and $6,471 for radar equipment. The grant period is Oct. 1, 2020, through Sept. 30, 2021. * Approved special district cost allocation invoices for fiscal year 2021. * Appointed David Miller as an Apache County Business Representative on the Local Workforce Development Board. * Authorized acceptance of the Hazardous Materials Preparedness Grant Program Award in the amount of $500. The funds will be used to host a tabletop exercise to test the Navajo County Hazardous Materials Response Plan. * Authorized acceptance of the Emergency Management Performance Grant in the amount of $236,314 from the Arizona Department for Emergency and Military Affairs. The grant requires a 50 percent match from Navajo County but also with in-kind match from volunteer hours, public awareness events and meetings as well as training hours. * Approved an attachment to the agreement between the Navajo Nation and Navajo County for road projects. The attachment authorizes the return of $200,000 to the Navajo Nation to load, haul and deliver gravel from the Peabody Western Coal Mine to roads in an adjacent to the Black Mesa area. * Approved stipulations on a Petition for Review of Notice of Change on parcel reviews.
