Huron County's treasurer says the COVID-19 pandemic will have a significant impact on the county's budget this year.
But Michael Blumhagen said it's difficult to measure the extent of the impact because no one knows how long the pandemic is going to last.
"We're definitely seeing some pressure with our homes for the aged, setting up the isolation unit, setting up the accommodation for staff that will be essentially working in those isolation units, so some costs there that would normally not be incurred in the county budget, but these are important measures that we have to take," said Blumhagen.
"On a staffing perspective, over time, significant costs there and just setting up remote, work from home strategies and that was a significant undertaking for the county and the IT staff to really set that up for the county, so we've incurred a number of costs associated with that," added Blumhagen.
As for county revenue, interest rates are flat and the county has significant balances in reserves.
Bluhagen said the county could quite likely see a reduction in revenue from investment of $300,000 to $400,000 and that's close to one per cent of the county's levy.
Huron County does have considerable reserves to help soften the impact of COVID-19.
