Last week when the Wright County Board of Commissioners declared a state of emergency and instituted its Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP), it put a two-week employment window in place to address social distancing and allow those with the ability to do their jobs remotely to work from home to put a barrier in the potential of community spread of COVID-19 between county employees.

That two-week window closes Saturday, April 4 and will need to be revisited. Historically, scheduling county board meetings other than at 9 a.m. on Tuesdays has been extremely rare. But, for the second time in two weeks, the county board will meet in special session starting at 3 p.m. Thursday, April 2.

As everyone knows, the situation with how COVID-19 is being handled has been extremely fluid and can take a sharp turn in a moment’s notice. On Wednesday, March 18, the county board voted to immediately shut down public access to the License Bureau due to long lines that didn’t have the ability to practice social distancing. By the time the day was out, the board opted to send non-essential workers and those capable of working remotely home for the next two days.

The April 2 meeting will be to assess where the situation is at, what the latest guidance from the Minnesota Department of Health is and whether the off-site work option will be extended. The meeting was scheduled for 3 p.m. because typically Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz conducts his daily press conference early in the afternoon and the expectation is that by holding it later, the county board will have as much up-to-date information at its disposal as possible.