Last Wednesday’s meeting of Pierce County’s Board of Health started with an announcement of the retirement of one of the County’s hardest workers after the agenda was adopted and the September 9th’s meeting minutes were approved.

Pierce County Public Health Department Programs Associate Laura Krech announced her final day will be January 8th of 2021. Krech stated that she officially worked for the County for the last 36 years.

Public Health Director AZ Snyder informed the Board that she requested to hire Krech’s replacement to start before she retires.

“I know that’s unusual, we don’t normally grant that request, but in this specific situation, given the stress that the Health Department is under and given the really wide variety of tasks that Laura does for the Health Department, Laura supports every environmental health program, a very complex immunization program, our MCH (maternal and child health) program and provides an office manager role for our Ellsworth office, that’s a lot of administrative systems to learn. We are going to plan on bringing someone on board December 14th,” Snyder informed the Board.

Snyder also informed the Board that the County has recently hired four disease investigators over the previous week.

“To help with COVID-19, we have hired two nurses, one clinical social worker and one Spanish-speaking family educator,” Snyder stated. “Some of them are 20 hours a week and some are 40 hours a week, to help us with disease investigation, contact tracing and case management.”

Board member Neil Gulbranson read aloud a commendation for the Pierce County Public Health Department employees.

“A proclamation declaring that the Pierce County Public Health Department be dually commended for professional, passionate and tireless service to the citizens of Pierce County in a time of pandemic crisis. Most especially, while maintaining their status as a Level Three Public Health Department. Whereas, Pierce County Public Health Department staff and administrators have been working beyond their ordinary hours, serving every need and fulfilling all professional responsibilities during this COVID crisis,” Gulbranson highlighted.

Snyder also announced to the Board that Pierce-Pepin Cooperative Services will host COVID-19 drive-thru testing, starting earlier this week. Every Monday through December 7th, the National Guard will be testing anyone with COVID-19 symptoms or a recent close contact with someone who tested positive. There is no need to schedule an appointment. The testing will begin at 10 a.m. and go until 6 p.m. The results are expected to take three to five business days, but can come back in as little as 12-48 hours.