Government : Benton County Supervisors extend COVID rules days before Governor Removes them

At last week's Benton County Supervisor's Meeting, officials included the discussion on the COVID policy in the county. The discussion, however, was not made public. The Supervisors went into a closed session over some objections. County Attorney David Thompson felt that the discussion would fall under "security," but wasn't able to cite which code at the time.  With no opposition from the Supervisors, the meeting was closed to the public.

As soon as it reopened, Supervisor Rick Primmer made a motion for the county's COVID policy to continue "as is" which includes, restricting access to county facilities, masks to be worn, and for some appointments to come into the building through April 6. The policy was created to "protect the employees as well as the public," said Primmer.

Gary Bierschenk disagreed with the move, stating that some people will get the virus, some will not. "What about the rest?" asked Primmer.  Bierschenk then went on to provide the second. The vote was taken in which all three supervisors voted in approval.

There was much discussion among the officials concerning this policy. The meeting had not yet adjourned. There was some heated debate from other elected officials who work with the public and feel that the public is not being served as they should be because of the COVID restrictions. Many are hearing complaints because of the shutdown. Some of the officials had left the room, and that's when the fireworks erupted

Among the comments made, were:

"I hope the Board of Supervisors sees the hostility and the hostile work environment in the courthouse because this is a s*** show. We have the COVID scanning equipment in place. Raise your hand if you've been outside of work and home without a mask. It's a double standard! I've seen everybody out without a mask." 

"I'm tired of being the middle man being asked to forward the complaints, this isn't middle school."

"I'm tired of trying to answer everyone's questions. We took an oath to serve the public, and to represent these people. These people are paying us."

"I'm tired of the bullying. We've lost good people because of the bullying s***."

'We're not getting the efficiency that we...I have a report due that's still waiting...people aren't getting the attention that they used to, we'd be lying if we said that they are. People that stay at home still get paid the same as the people that have to come to work."

Another official left in tears saying that they were tired of the blame for closing being put on their office, while the other officials reassured them that this was not the case.

Watching the meeting it should be noted that none of the supervisors wore masks to the meeting and only masked up after an hour into the meeting when other county officials showed up to discuss the COVID procedures. Other elected officials attended the meeting without a mask, and others wore their masks who came in for the COVID discussion, some wore them part-time or partially covering both their nose and mouth. 

Let's look at some numbers. Numbers that you WON'T see in any other media I would guess. 

Benton County, with a population of 25,645 is sitting at 59 active cases in the last week. According to various websites, the recovery rate of COVID 19 is 97% to 99.75%. 

Benton County has had a total of 53 people pass away. 43 had underlying or pre-existing health issues in and in 10 it was a contributing factor.

60% of these deaths were people 80 years old or older.

22% of the deaths were in the ages of 70-79 

12% of deaths were in the ages 60-69

5% of deaths were in the ages 50-59

1% of the deaths in both the 40-49 and

1% in the age 30-39 age groups  

0% in ages 29 and younger

Across the state, there have been 5,196 deaths out of a population of 3,155,000

Of those, 4,690 had underlying conditions

The remaining 506 COVID was a contributing factor