Lincoln Trail health official provides Nelson Fiscal Court with a COVID-19 update

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020, 11:45 a.m. — Milt Spalding, the director of Nelson County Dispatch, is resigning his position as director effective Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020.

Nelson County Sheriff Ramon Pineiroa made the announcement at the end of Tuesday’s Nelson Fiscal Court meeting.

Pineiroa told the court that before Spalding left, he wanted thank him for his years of service as director, noting that prior to his resignation,  he had done the work needed for the dispatch center to win a substantial grant that will pay for upgrades to the center’s dispatch consoles and other needed upgrades.

Spalding has served as dispatch director since February 2017.

COVID-19 LTDHD UPDATE. Sara Jo Best, the director of the Lincoln Trail District Health Department, provided the court with a presentation the latest data regarding the spread and prevalence of the Coronavirus throughout the six-county Lincoln Trail District.

Regarding the health department case numbers for Nelson County, Best explained that the numbers represent the number of actual people who test positive, not the number of tests given. If someone takes more than one test and is positive on multiple tests, they are only counted once, she explained.

Since the beginning of July, Nelson County and counties across Kentucky have seen a large increase in the number of positive COVID-19 cases. The average age of those individuals who have tested positive is 44 years old, she said.

“We have community spread in all of our communities,” she explained, though the growth rate for new cases has been slowing for the past couple of weeks.

The community spread is why wearing a mask and social distancing remain critically important to slowing the spread of the virus. Twenty percent of individuals who get the virus are asymptomatic, and may never know they are carrying the virus.

“You can be exposed (to the virus) just about anywhere you go,” she said.

Some confusion remains about the numbers being reported due to the increased number of labs now conducting tests. Some labs are reporting their numbers directly to the governor’s office and later to the health departments. And not every late is reporting their negative tests, which can make the number of positive cases look worse than they really are.

Long-term care facilities in Nelson County have tested all of the staff members and residents. There are currently no active COVID-19 cases among nursing home staff or residents, she said.

Local assisted living facilities are now undergoing testing too.

Best thanked local governments and the community for its support for the health department’s efforts during the pandemic.

“This hasn’t been easy, but its been wonderful to have support from our community partners in Nelson County,” she said. “You’ve been true public health champions.”

Magistrate Keith Metcalfe asked Best what she would recommend telling people who believe the virus is going to “go away” after the November election.

“If they don’t believe its real, then they’ve been blessed they haven’t had to experience it firsthand,” she said.  “But it is really, real. “I see this stuff everday, and these are real human beings involved. Its been very real for us.”

DISTRICT 5 PAVING. The court approved the paving requests for Magistrate Eric Shelburne’s district that will include paving all of Prather Ridge Road and about 7,000 feet of Plum Run Road starting at Peavler Lane.

In other business, Nelson Fiscal Court:

— tentatively approved a lease to allow the sheriff’s office to share a secure warehouse space with the Greater Hardin County Narcotics Task Force. The $4,200 annual lease will give the sheriff’s office half of a 7,000-square-foot warehouse to store impounded vehicles and other evidence. The court’s approval is conditional a review of the lease by County Attorney Matthew Hite.

— approved the purchase of three antennas and two towers to improve the sheriff’s department communications. One antenna will go up at Boston, the second at Rooster Run, the third in Cox’s Creek. The new antennas will give deputies better coverage for their handheld radios.

— approved advertising for bids for a new Animal Control truck. The one now in use has more than 375,000 miles on it.

— approved an annexation consent agreement to allow the City of Bardstown to annex the portion of Spencer Mattingly Lane from Woodlawn Road to the railroad tracks. The prior annexation took in Polyair but not the roadway from Woodlawn Road that leads to the facility.

— approved a revision to Magistrate Bernard Ice’s paving list to add additional paving work on Leaman Ford Road.

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