After going through a short agenda during their virtual meeting on Tuesday, the Lawrence County Commissioners put out a call for volunteer nurses to help in the fight against COVID-19.

“The health department could use any nurses that would be willing to help with the vaccinations, in clinics and administering the vaccines,” said Commissioner DeAnna Holliday. “If you are interested in helping in this venture, you can call the health department at 740-302-5124 and talk with them about how you may be able to help them with administering the vaccine.”

The commissioners had talked with the Lawrence County Health Department earlier on Tuesday and Holliday went over some of the numbers.

“We have, to date, administered 3,637 doses, so that is a really good number. That includes first doses and second doses.”

The health department vaccinations are in Phase 1B, which means they are currently for people 70 and older. Starting Monday, people 65 and older can get the vaccine.

“We were very hopeful that we could get to our school personnel sooner than later, but however, our date has been pushed back to Feb. 22,” Holliday said. “There are about 1,070 vaccinations that are scheduled to happen.”

She said the health department is being limited to what vaccines are delivered from the Ohio Department of Health.

“Our folks at the health department are doing a fantastic job making sure that we are exhausting every dose on a weekly basis, that no dose is going unused or wasted,” Holliday said. “We have a lot of confidence in what they are doing there and the processes they are following.”

Dillon said that the vaccinations have been a great success and thanked all their partners for their help.

For more information about getting a COVID-19 vaccination, people can go to the health department’s Facebook page at facebook.com/lawcohd.org.

People can also call the health department at 740-302-5124 between 8:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, although the health department is getting a large volume of calls and it is sometimes easier to register online.

One Facebook commenter raised a question about a proposed project to put two roundabouts from U.S. 52 and State Route 93.

The proposed improvement would be on the U.S. Route 52/ State Route 93 interchange in Ironton that would remove existing traffic signals on each of the ramp intersections and replace them with single-lane roundabouts.

The Ohio Department of Transportation said the roundabouts are designed to be safer and more efficient than a traditional intersection, with the geometry of the design creating a low speed (20-30mph) environment inside the circulatory roadway, as well as at the entry and exit locations.

The geometry also prevents high angle crashes such as “T-bone” and left turn angle crashes. Lower angle, low speed crashes tend to be less severe than higher angle, high speed crashes.

Holliday said that it was a state project, not a county project.

“But they always want to hear from people and now is that the time to comment,” she said.

On Tuesday, there will be a virtual meeting for the public with ODOT and the KYOVA Interstate Planning Commission.

The meeting is at 5 p.m. and can be accessed online at https://publicinput.com/P8162.

There is also an option to listen via phone by calling 855-925-2801 and entering meeting code 8205.