County commission to return to in-person meetings in April

The St. Joseph County Commission Tuesday decided it will return to in-person meetings on Tuesday, April 6.

At the tail end of a 40-minute county executive meeting on Tuesday, March 10, County Administrator Teresa Doehring broached the subject of returning to in-person, remaining online only or settling on a hybrid model. “Looking at the calendar, if we wanted to go with the April 6 board meeting to move back to our hybrid option, we can do it in-person, or continue via Zoom.”

Commissioner Kathy Pangle said she was fine returning to in-person meetings if that’s what commissioners wanted to do but cautioned that St. Joseph County recently experienced a slight uptick in positive cases. “Last week we were at 5.2 percent and this week we are at 7.8 percent positive cases, so I just want to throw that out there. I don’t want to go backwards.”

Commissioner Jared Hoffmaster recommended the board wait until April before returning to in-person meetings, and the other commissioners ultimately agreed that was the best way forward.

Watershed Voice contacted the county administrator’s office Thursday morning to confirm whether meetings will continue to be streamed via Zoom or another online platform, as the in-person meetings will be limited to 25 attendees. Doehring said she plans on using the hybrid plan, which will be similar to previous in-person meetings during the pandemic, with the in-person meeting being live streamed on Zoom.

Alek Haak-Frost is executive editor of Watershed Voice.