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The Cole County Commission on Tuesday approved two emergency purchases related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman and Western District Commissioner Kris Scheperle were in the commission chambers while Eastern District Commissioner Jeff Hoelscher sat in via video conference. Hoelscher later said he had tested positive for COVID-19 and said he expected to be out of quarantine in less than two weeks.
Bushman said maintenance crews sanitize the commission chambers daily and 6-foot distance is observed in the chambers.
"I've told our employees if they feel comfortable wearing a mask, then wear a mask," Bushman said. "I'm also telling them if they don't feel good, stay home. Many of the elected officials are asking people to wear masks when they come into their office."
One of those emergency purchases the commission approved was to get a COVID supply box out to every home in the county.
Cole County Health Director Kristi Campbell said Mo Med Supplies out of Maryland Heights in the St. Louis area will send the boxes through the mail to 33,000 households for a cost of $318,255.
Story continues below meeting video.
In the boxes is a pack of 50 surgical masks. Campbell said surgical masks have been found to be much more effective in preventing the spread of the virus than cloth masks.
"The CDC has found that cloth masks are only about 10-30 percent effective compared to surgical masks which are 70 percent effective," Campbell said. "There's also a bottle of hand sanitizer that comes in the box and some written information from the county and Jefferson City about COVID precautions."
All the products that come in the box are made in the St. Louis area.
County officials estimated the boxes should start coming to Cole County households by the first week of December.
Commissioners also approved a $55,000 emergency purchase to upgrade portable ventilators on 11 county ambulances.
EMS Chief Matt Lindewirth said this will allow them to match the ventilator settings at hospitals. He said this will keep patients, in particular COVID patients, breathing better while in transport. Lindewirth estimated they would have all ambulances upgraded by mid-December.
"Over this past weekend, we ran 30 calls in a 48-hour period where our crews had either known COVID patients or that were highly suspected of having COVID," Lindewirth said. "That is a marked uptick from just a month ago when we averaged two-a-day. Our personal protective equipment supply will become an issue at some point. We have been ordering to try and keep up, but everyone else is also dealing with low PPE supply."
Lindewirth said the EMS system is becoming stressed as more "status zeroes" are taking place. Status zero is where no ambulances are available, and outside agencies would be called in to take a medical call.
"We're having more sick people call us, and we're having people who shouldn't call us, call us," Lindewirth said. "We're having a lot of transfers, and these transfers aren't local. They are going to Columbia and sometimes as far as St. Louis, which means that ambulance and crew is gone for five to six hours. You have 45 minutes to get the patient ready at the hospital, then it's two- or two-and-a-half hours down and that same amount of time to get back."
Lindewirth said they are planning to make some staffing changes to meet the extra demand, which will also affect the EMS overtime costs.
For both of the emergency purchases, the county commission plans to work to get reimbursement through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.
On Tuesday, commissioners approved a few more requests for CARES funding. Officials with BKD of Springfield, the accounting firm assisting Cole County in meeting its obligations under the CARES Act, went through applications that had been sent in and found they met the requirements needed to get the funds.
One of those getting approval was the Russellville/Lohman Fire Protection District. They received $7,679 to purchase an extractor washer and hot water heater to clean firefighter gear.
Commissioners also approved a request from the Blair Oaks School District for $125,700. This money will be used to pay for Chromebooks, Wi-Fi hot spots, cleaning equipment, cleaning supplies and bus cameras for contact tracing.
Also getting $1,428 was the Jefferson City Convention and Visitors Bureau, which will use that money to pay for an electrostatic sprayer. La Chica Loca Restaurant on East High Street received $2,991 to pay for personal protective equipment and outdoor ordering and seating.
Coming into Tuesday, the county had $5,097,276 remaining out of the more than $9 million in CARES funds it received in May. With Tuesday's approvals totaling $137,798, that leaves $4,959,478 in CARES funds.
Instructions from the federal government indicated the CARES money could go toward necessary expenditures incurred March 1 through Dec. 30. They cannot be used for replacement of lost revenue.
The goal remains to have the funds earmarked by Nov. 30.
Funds that aren't spent by March 31, 2021, must be returned to the state and would go to other areas which have already spent their CARES allocations, but still need help.