Waco-McLennan County might soon be open for business, though local government officials admit that they have little control over how this process is enacted as Governor Greg Abbott prepares to move forward with plans to reopen the Texas economy.
In a virtual press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Waco Mayor Kyle Deaver addressed the county’s approach to reopening alongside McLennan County Judge Scott Felton and Dr. Jackson Griggs of the McLennan County Medical Team.
“It’s unclear right now how much local control we will have as we move into this easing, but I was very pleased to hear the Governor say, as I said earlier, that he was going to do this in a carefully phased manner that seems to be lining up with the message that President Trump and Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx laid out at the national level. So as long as we follow that kind of approach I think we’ve got a reasonable chance of coming through this.
Though their level of control over the reopening of the local economy is unclear, the officials noted that they expect to receive further instructions from Governor Abbot by Monday the 27th.
Additionally, Deaver stressed that local officials are continuing to develop a plan in the event that they are given any level of control over the reopening process.
“We are working out a plan locally in case we have some degree of local control we want to be ready for that. And so the plan that we have begun working on is sort of based on the President’s plan that was laid out by Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx that has these gated approaches to having to have certain health metrics met and then opening one phase of businesses and activities. And then if you can stay in the green for fourteen days, have a continued improvement or at least a flattening, then maybe you can go through that next gate and open up more businesses and more activities.”
This plan is being developed alongside community collaborative working teams comprised of local business and healthcare professionals, whom Deaver credited as being instrumental in the city’s response to the pandemic.
“We will continue to put health and safety first, but we are listening hard to the business leaders in our community and we are relying on these community collaborative working teams as the main source for that. We are also talking to other business leaders and other health professionals, including of course Dr. Verner of the health authority and Dr. Gray, the director of the health district.”
In the event that the Governor’s orders contradict any aspects of the plan being created by local authorities, Felton and Deaver (respectively) noted that they would do their best to counsel local businesses on how to reopen as safely as possible.
“It could be that here locally we have little control about how that happens, but we will be able to counsel and advise local businesses how to best make that work where we don’t have the backlash of the virus coming back on us and us having to reverse some of those orders locally.”
“We may have some challenges there, and we’re just going to have to see what the Governor does as he makes his announcement on Monday.”
With KWBU News, I’m Sam Cedar.