At Monday’s meeting of the Ellsworth County commissioners, commissioner Kermit Rush asked Kerianne Ehrlich, supervisor of the county health department, the status of the Ellsworth High School football team after hearing a report regarding a student athlete having COVID-19.

Ehrlich said it is a positive case.

“We worked a long weekend with the school and coaches,” she said.

Ehrlich said she could not identify who was or was not within the social distancing guidelines of the six feet, 10 minute rule, so the entire Ellsworth High School football team was quarantined.

“They can go back to normal life on Aug. 26 if nobody else pops up positive,” she said.

Commissioner Dennis Rolfs asked Ehrlich if she knew where the student athlete caught COVID-19.

“That hasn’t been determined yet,” she said. Ehrlich said she talked to state

Ehrlich said she talked to state health officials over the weekend to discuss different scenarios.

“The school was very helpful,” she added. “It was good conversation and we all worked together on figuring out the plan.”

Ehrlich said only the high school football players were quarantined because while the junior high school football players were on the same field with the high school players, they were on the opposite end of the football field and no mix of the two groups occurred.

“Don’t you think it’s going to continue to happen this way?” Rush asked Ehrlich.

“Yeah,” she replied.

“So why are we having football in the first place?” Rush asked.

“Ask KSHSAA (the Kansas State High School Association).” Ehrlich said.

‘Why have football?” Rolfs asked. “Why have school is my question to you Kermit.”

“Why do kids go to school?” Rush asked Rolfs. “To learn something.”

“Don’t they learn anything in football?” Rolfs asked.

“Well, maybe they do,” Rush said.

“That’s why we have it,” Rolfs said. “It’s called an activity.”

“I don’t agree with you at all,” Rush said. In other business:

In other business:

Sarah Goss, administrator of the Ellsworth County SPARK funds, gave a brief update on the program.“We have submitted applications to the state for every dollar that has been allocated to Ellsworth County,” Goss said. “No real expectation or real understanding of when we’re going to hear back from the state on those applications. They said it could be as late as Sept. 15. I hope it’s a lot sooner than that, because we really need to take action on a lot of these plans.” Goss commended those who

Goss commended those who took the time to submit applications. “The applications, as I

“The applications, as I reviewed them, reflect not only looking backward and making our public institutions whole for their losses, but I really commend those who participated as a visionary approach and found a way to use those funds to not only meet the needs of COVID, but will support our public entities and institutions going forward.”

• The petition asking commissioners to implement a mask mandate was not discussed. Dr. Ronald Whitmer presented the petition at the Aug. 10 meeting.

• Approval was given to memorandums of understanding between the county and the Midway Extension District, the Ellsworth County Conservation District, the Ellsworth County Appraiser’s Office and the Ellsworth County Health Department for the receipt of SPARK funding. The memorandums are a requirement of the funding process. • Shawn Estrel, county sani

• Shawn Estrel, county sanitarian, reviewed the county’s environmental health data for the first and second quarters of 2020. For the first quarter, Estrel worked nine hours with septic pumper trucks, 75 hours on sewage, including 14 inspections and seven consultations and performed two water tests. For the second quarter, he worked 75 hours with sewage, including 18 inspections and three consultations.

Estrel has been busy since COVID-19 struck because families who stayed home full time experienced more issues with their septic systems.

• Approval was given to a request by Sheriff Murray Marston to purchase a new recorder system for the dispatch area of the Sheriff Office from Voice Products. The amount of the purchase is $20,025 and will be taken from the county equipment fund.