GT County Commissioners Discuss Pavilions Outbreak, Infrastructure Funding

The first major COVID-19 outbreak has hit the Grand Traverse Pavilions, infecting 34 fully vaccinated residents and another 12 employees, 80 percent of whom were also fully vaccinated. Grand Traverse County commissioners received an update about the outbreak at a special meeting Monday, where they also learned how the recently passed $1.2 trillion national infrastructure bill could impact Grand Traverse County.

Grand Traverse Pavilions Interim CEO/Administrator Rose Coleman told commissioners that “after almost 20 months of dealing with COVID in a long-term care facility, we have had our first outbreak.” The outbreak started on November 5, according to Coleman, and has been traced to one of three potential sources: a resident who was in and out of the hospital, where a high number of COVID-positive patients are currently staying; a family member who didn’t follow safety protocols; or a vaccinated staff member. Regardless of the outbreak’s source, it has since infected nearly three dozen residents and required the conversion of the facility’s entire rehab unit into an isolated COVID unit.

“Unfortunately, we have had five people pass away,” Coleman said. “We have had twenty fully recovered and moved back to their rooms, and I currently have nine residents still on the COVID unit.”

Because the outbreak was affecting mostly vaccinated individuals, Coleman said the facility requested genotyping and determined the strain sweeping through the Pavilions was the Delta variant. “That appears to be resistant to the vaccine we had,” Coleman said, noting the Pavilions received the Moderna vaccine. All but one resident in the facility is vaccinated – a 99.3 percent vaccination rate – and over two-thirds of residents have received the booster, though not in time to prevent the outbreak. “Unfortunately, the COVID wave hit us right as we were administering the boosters,” Coleman said. She added that a majority of infected residents have been treated with monoclonal antibody therapy, which has been “pretty effective” in assisting their recovery.

In addition to trying to curb the outbreak, the Pavilions is also working to meet a federal vaccination mandate for facilities that receive Medicare and Medicaid funding. Coleman said the Pavilions has lost “about 10 percent of staff” to date over the mandate, exacerbating existing staffing struggles. “However, that (mandate) is beyond our control,” she said. Roughly 91 percent of staff at the Pavilions are now vaccinated, according to Coleman.

County Administrator Nate Alger told commissioners that both the Pavilions and the Commission on Aging are struggling to attract certified nursing assistants (CNAs), with a recent county job fair netting zero applicants or candidates. County commissioners expressed interest in passing a resolution of support at a future meeting for state legislation that would allow community colleges like Northwestern Michigan College to offer four-year nursing degrees. “This is something the college has been asking Lansing for forever,” said Commissioner Betsy Coffia. “I don’t know if it has legs…but it’s worth a try.”

Also on Monday, Kelly Lively – the northern Michigan regional director for U.S. Senator Gary Peters – appeared before commissioners to provide an overview of the $1.2 trillion bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law this month by President Joe Biden. Lively, who called the legislation a “monumental bill,” said approximately $10 billion is slated to come to the state of Michigan for roads, bridge replacement/repairs, water upgrades, electric vehicle charging improvements, expanded high-speed Internet access, and other infrastructure projects.

Lively noted that the bill also establishes a revolving loan fund to help local municipalities and governments “repair, rebuild, and enhance infrastructure that’s damaged due to increasing high-impact storms.” She said that fund was something Peters had championed in the legislation, noting it was important not only to repair existing infrastructure but “enhance it so it’s resilient for the future” given the impacts of climate change. Across all categories of funding, Michigan communities will be competing with one another for state grants and loans, so Lively said Grand Traverse County’s best approach “to be positioned to get the money” is planning infrastructure projects now and getting them “shovel ready” so that commissioners can “get in ahead of the curve and be able to bring that money into our region.”

Lively also recommended that Grand Traverse County collaborate with the City of Traverse City and other local municipalities on potential joint projects, saying that “working across jurisdictional lines will be helpful” in securing funding. The legislation “doesn’t dictate what projects get funded – it’ll be up to us to make sure our region is well-represented,” she said. Lively added that Peters is willing to write letters of support for local projects and assist however possible in channeling funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to northern Michigan. Commissioners expressed an interest particularly in trying to expand rural broadband access across the region, something that was identified by residents as a high priority in a recent countywide survey.

Whatever funding could ultimately come to Grand Traverse County will be in addition to $18.2 million the county is receiving from the American Rescue Plan (ARP), an earlier federal aid package providing a total $1.9 trillion in funding nationwide. Details on exactly how funds can be spent from both bills are still preliminary, meaning communities are still early in the process of determining what projects they will likely be able to tackle – a fact County Commission Chair Rob Hentschel reiterated Monday.

“(The infrastructure bill) is the same with the ARP plan,” he said. “It’s just a waiting game. We’ve got to be smart and take it one step at a time.”