By: Brian Todd
4/6/2020
“All it takes,” said Wabasha Mayor Emily Durand, “is for one person to be sick, and that whole house of cards changes.”
Durand spoke during a Rural Impact Round Table hosted by U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, MN-2, who brought together rural leaders from cities, hospitals, transportation, schools and farming to talk about what might be needed next as communities struggle to survive the COVID-19 pandemic.
Talking about the city’s ambulance service, Durand said the EMS had recently hired a couple new first responders, but that staffing was designed for “normal times,” not a long-term battle with a pandemic.
“Our EMS is stretched to be there for the service area,” she said.
Police, ambulance and fire personnel, she said, are looking for information on who has been diagnosed with the virus that causes COVID-19, she said, so they can be aware when entering a home or arriving on a scene.
Zumbrota Mayor Brad Drenckhahn agreed with Durand’s assessment that city services could quickly be wiped out with one or two illnesses.
He also talked about the need to support small businesses so towns have an economic base once life returns to normal.
The owner of one of those businesses, Roxanne Bartsch, who runs Wild Ginger Boutique in downtown Zumbrota, said most businesses in that once-thriving downtown have closed due to the virus. And uncertainty from federal programs designed to help have her and other business owners concerned.
“We don’t really know the status of our (Small Business Administration) loans,” Bartsch said. “We don’t even know if they got our application.”
For her business, a women’s clothing store, Bartsch said the quarantine orders could not have come at a worse time.
“All my inventory is for spring and summer,” she said. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to get the product in for fall.”
She’s been delighted at the ingenuity of some businesses, though. For example, she said the local flower shop started a campaign to “Put a bloom in every room” at the local senior care facilities. When donors came forward to help fund the campaign to help brighten the days of seniors who are sheltering in place, the movement then expanded to talking with local churches about bringing blooms to shut-ins.
Both Bill Ihrke, superintendent of the Plainview-Elgin-Millville District, and Stacy Schultz, principal of Wabasha-Kellogg K-12 School, agreed that the impact of the shelter-in-place orders on budget lines is a concern beyond being able to teach online.
While Ihrke talked about the formula for special education funding, which mainly comes from the federal government, and how it can cause a burden to district budgets, Schultz talked about child care.
“We’ve had to expand our hours,” she said. “We’re open now from 6 (a.m.) to 6 (p.m.) to accommodate our parents. And it’s all free now. We’re wondering how that’s going to affect our budget.”
Schultz also said because internet connections can be spotty across her district, she’s concerned about children getting missed.
“We have some kids we still haven’t been in contact with, and they are our at-risk kids,” she said.
Craig said in the next round of bills aimed at helping deal with the impact of the pandemic, she’ll introduce a bill today aimed at reducing the discrepancies in aid and infrastructure that impact rural communities.
For example, Schultz was just one of several individuals who talked about how a lack of broadband in rural areas is impacting their ability to serve people, whether through telemedicine, education or just connecting people.
While the first round of bills addressing COVID-19 as a disease made testing available for free, Craig said the next round needs to make vaccination and treatment free so no one gets the disease for lack of money.
Next, the small-business community needs more funding support.
“If businesses are gone, we’ll be less as a county,” Craig said.
Congress needs to look at a bigger financial cure rather than just Band-Aids financing as we triage the economy, she said.
“We need to get people to work, and that means infrastructure and broadband,” she said.
Finally, if the shelter-in-place orders go on for an extended period, Congress might need to look at another round of direct assistance.
“We have to have an economy left to stand back up,” she said. “We have to make sure rural America is ready to stand back up.”