County Emergency Management Director John MacDonald comments on the county’s re-opening plan he helped craft.
By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
Levy County Commissioners Tuesday unanimously approved a plan to reopen Levy County’s economy in three phases beginning on May 4 with the understanding that Gov. Ron DeSantis must lift his restrictions first.
Phase 1 of the plan drafted by Commission Chairman Matt Brooks with input from other county officials is intended to open businesses to provide basic services while keeping safeguards to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The first phase would last 14 days. These are the provisions:
- Continue to enforce the Emergency Order banning gatherings of 10 or more until further notice.
- Adopt an Emergency Order allowing restaurants, bars, gyms, hair salons and all other businesses that were previously considered non-essential to re-open with an occupancy of 50 percent as determined by the local building code. Employees are not included in the count. All businesses will be strongly encouraged to maintain 6 feet of distance between patrons.
- Work with local daycares that choose to re-open to ensure that they have a plan in place to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and all other infectious diseases.
- Phased re-opening of Levy County Board of County Commission government offices to allow residents to access the buildings for services while also enforcing strict social distancing guidelines.
- Post Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommendation flyers in all Levy County government offices.
- Blue Springs and Henry Beck Parks will remain closed.
DeSantis is expected to make a decision on whether to lift his Stay at Home Order by May 4.
Brooks said the county’s three phase plan will be sent to the governor’s office. He said county officials are aware of the low virus transmission rate in Levy County and hope the governor doesn’t lump Levy with other more populous counties that have higher transmission rates.
The county commission chairman said the county reopening plan was drafted as a means of having something in place whenever the governor makes his announcement on the statewide reopening.
“I felt a need for us to have something on the shelf ready to go when that order comes about,” Brooks said. “What we looked at was walking back out of the door we came in through, so to speak. At any point in the phase, if the state says we’re good to re-open completely, we do not have to say we put this plan into place and now we have to follow it. We can say, alright, we’re doing an accelerated re-opening. We’re going to move just as fast as we can and this was just something to be cautious as we walk back out the same door we walked in.”
Emergency Management Department Director John MacDonald said the county looked at the numbers and could tell there was success in limiting the spread of the virus. He said Levy County had 12 positive COVID-19 cases. Currently there are currently 6 active COVID-19 cases and 6 that have been released from monitoring.
“We’ve got 12 cases that will set benchmarks for us. Maybe we’ll see the numbers go down as positives get released. As those numbers start dropping down that’s a benchmark for us to say, maybe we can go to 100 percent or whatever capacity we go for. If the number goes up, we know we need to address it,” MacDonald said.
Commissioner Lilly Rooks said Cedar Key continues to barricade U.S. 27A to prevent non-residents from entering. She wondered if the city could continue that practice under the county’s plan.
MacDonald said cities can’t do less than what the county plan requires. They can be more restrictive, but not less.
“Whatever minimum we set, they have to do at least that or above, but no less than that,” MacDonald said.
Brooks said the idea behind his reopening plan is to let people know what the county would do when the county is re-opened.
“If you don’t put anything out there it leads to further speculation, so we really, really want to put something in black and white,” he said, “subject to additions and deletions as the county learns more from the state and observes the Coronavirus numbers in the county.
“The county feels the low transmission rate is a positive development from an economic standpoint.”
“We do want to see businesses re-open – salons, gyms, bars, everything we want to see some of that stuff slowly phased back in and go back to that sense of normalcy and we want the state to know that also,” Brooks said.
Commissioner John Meeks said the plan assumes that the governor lifts his restrictions and the Stay at Home order.
“It is expected to do so, but things may change in the next 10 days, we may go in a different direction,” Meeks said.
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Board of County Commission Regular Meeting April 21, 2020; Posted April 21, 2020.