The Mora City Council held a discussion on a pop-up vaccination tent at their June 15th meeting.
The Kanabec County Community Health director had reached out to the city last Monday, June 7th, to request permission to set up a vaccination tent during the Music in the Park event.
With the short notice and no meeting planned before the event, the request was brought forth to Mayor Skramstad where approval of the request was then granted. The tent was located near the library, distanced away from the concert at the gazebo.
A couple of park board members have raised some concerns regarding the pop-up tent and how the request never went past the park board for approval. The park board members also stated that the city should not be promoting the tent and should stay neutral about vaccination.
The council disagreed with the park board members concerns with council-member Jake Mathison stating that the city should be doing everything it can to promote public health.
"I do not believe that community health is a park board issue and I also do not believe that the city of Mora shouldn't remain neutral about vaccinations."
Council decided they would allow more pop-up vaccine tents to take place during public events under the knowledge that such requests wouldn't be needed for long, with council understanding that their decision might not sit well with certain park board members.
Community Health gave out zero vaccinations at the Music in the Park event while Kanabec County continues to sit at the second worst county in terms of vaccine rates in the state.
