March 2, 2021 County ends emergency declaration Commissioners ended the county’s pandemic emergency declaration on Thursday, saying they don’t believe the situation can still be considered an emergency since the county has had a year to determine how to operate under pandemic conditions. The emergency declaration was tied to certain county actions. The one that most concerned staff and commissioners was a provision allowing employees to donate their vacation time to colleagues suffering hardship from the extended school shutdown. Last year, commissioners rejected authorizing extra leave for employees affected by having to supervise remote schooling. In order to let employees continue donating leave to one another for school-related reasons, commissioners tied the authorization to the governor’s statewide emergency declaration, instead.