Barnhart named to city-county health board

The Columbia Falls city council last week appointed Mayor Don Barnhart to the Flathead City-County health board. The county recently changed the board’s bylaws to allow the three cities in the county to appoint a person to the board.

Barnhart spoke to some of the public comments received prior to the appointment, noting the city always intended to have an elected official sit on the board.

Councilman Mike Shepard was named an alternate, should Barnhart not be able to attend a meeting. The vote was unanimous.

In Kalispell, Mayor Mark Johnson selected former Kalispell City Council member Rod Kuntz as its city representative last week. The county last week reappointed Dr. J. Peter Heyboer II and Ronalee Skees to the board. Whitefish hasn’t appointed its boardmember yet.

Current board members will continue to serve on the board until their terms expire.

The board has been in the limelight since the Covid-19 pandemic struck, and has, at times, had rancorous meetings over mask rules and other measures that were intended to stem the spread of the virus, but were opposed by some people.

The county, however, currently has few restrictions regarding Covid, other than stemming crowds at some public meetings; even though cases surged in late summer and this fall.

But cases have since dropped significantly. In the late summer and fall, active cases were at about 900 to 1,000 a day.

They have since dropped into the 300s. The county’s vaccination rate of 42% is still below the state average of 51%.

The county has also had about 21,000 confirmed cases and 214 deaths through Dec. 9.

No one from infant to age 19 has died from coronavirus, according to state statistics.

The omicron variant, the newest strain, at least from preliminary studies, is said to be able to infect people who have already been infected, though it doesn’t appear to be as virulent a strain, researchers have said.