GRANT COUNTY — Though health officials in Grant County are in normal times tasked mostly with regulating restaurants, sewers and wells, the coronavirus has brought new attention to the county board of health, which sets policies, and the health officer, who sees that they are executed.

As the Herald reported Wednesday, health officers like Grant County’s Dr. Alexander Brzezny have broad powers to safeguard public health, never more so than in the face of a pandemic. As health officer, Brzezny has been tasked by state officials with deciding when the county is ready to apply to reopen some of its economy after the pandemic closures, or to close again if the virus grows out of control.

Though state officials have an oversight role over Brzezny and other health officers and can override their decisions, so too does the county’s board of health. While some counties have health department’s, generally made up of just county commissioners, Grant County moved to a health district in 1968, adding more regional representation for cities and spreading around the responsibility for oversight.

The board of health is a nine-member group made up of elected and appointed officials, including the three county commissioners and six regional members. Several members of the board voiced support in recent interviews with the Herald for the steps Brzezny has taken in the nearly four months since the first coronavirus case was reported in the county.

Responding to criticism that the county was being too cautious in reopening, board chairman and member of the Warden City Council Tony Massa said that Brzezny was doing his best to meet the state’s requirements and to move the county forward.

“I can tell you that Dr. Brzezny wants to get the county open as soon as he can,” Massa said.

As the state began broadening its requirements to move into Phase 2 of a four-phase reopening plan, the county had a fleeting opportunity to apply before its new cases surpassed what was allowed, Massa noted.

“Had we applied one day later, our numbers wouldn’t have gotten us into stage two,” Massa said in a Tuesday interview.

“We literally had about a 24-hour window, and Dr. Brzezny was supportive about getting us into stage two. I’m sure if it comes to where we can hit that one day window to get into stage three, we’ll do that again.”

Massa declined to comment further about his thoughts about the requirements that the state had asked counties to adhere to, only emphasizing the work that Brzezny and staff have been doing not only to suppress the virus, but to reopen businesses.

“I think sometimes there’s a misjudgment that that wasn’t the case,” Massa said. “What I can say, is that he and all the health district staff have been busting their buns on this thing, trying to do everything they can and burning the candle at both ends,” he said.

County Commissioner Richard Stevens is also a member of the health board. He said that while he had thought Brzezny was overly cautious, he felt the health officer’s concerns have been borne out with the recent spike, with the health district reporting 240 new cases in two weeks alone.

“Dr. Brzezny has done a pretty good job; I don’t fault him for overdoing it,” Stevens said. “We were getting good results until we went into Phase 2, gatherings started, and now look what’s happened.”

As the total number of cases in Grant County grows, both Massa and Mark Wanke, health board vice chairman and member of the Ephrata City Council, urged residents to wear masks to slow the spread of the virus and get the restrictions lifted.

However, they agreed that when Brzezny issued an order in late May for residents to wear masks, it was a preferable decision to not make noncompliance a misdemeanor, as the state Secretary of Health did last week.

“Who’s going to enforce it?” Wanke said. “Is it going to be the local police? The local sheriff? You’ve got the bigger picture out there. Do they give up what they’re trying to enforce to go after the small ones?”

Gov. Jay Inslee and local law enforcement agencies have emphasized that the order will largely be used to educate the public, and that penalties for noncompliance won’t be vigorously enforced.

Though he expressed concerns with the governor’s decisions, Wanke said that it also concerned him to see the response to the pandemic splitting along political lines. To get out ahead of the virus again, he said officials and the public need to work together.

“You’ve got one group trying to do one thing, another group trying to do another, and it’s an election year,” Wanke said. “But we’ve got a job to do, and we’re trying to do what we can.”