Reopening:
Rural Modoc
County, with zero coronavirus cases, will be state’s first to end stay-at-home orders.
The handful of burgers and breakfast sandwiches that Nikki French has been making for pickup each day isn’t paying the bills.
Her eighttable diner in rural Modoc County, which used to serve gobs of pancakes and chickenfried steak to local ranchers and travelers off Highway 395, has seen sales plunge since the coronavirus put a lid on most commercial activities last month, including sitdown dining.
On Friday, however, the Auction Yard Cafe in Alturas, along with the small town’s movie theater, bars, hair salons. and other shops and restaurants, plans to reopen its doors and get back to business.
“It’s time,” said French, 48, who was forced to stop table service in midMarch. “You see everybody going out to the grocery store now, and the hardware business is booming. You might as well let us and everybody else open, too.”
Modoc County, once a gateway for horsedrawn wagons settling the West, expects to lead California out of its nearly 2monthold shutdown. Facing frustrated shopkeepers and a public antsy from social isolation, the county’s Board of Supervisors approved plans this week to allow businesses, schools, churches and doctors’ offices to resume operation — with added safety precautions.
The move comes as the rest of California remains idled by state shelterinplace orders, which have forced services considered nonessential to close. Six Bay Area counties, including San Francisco, have even extended local stayathome directives through the end of May.
The different actions across California reflect the stark contrast in how different parts of the state have been affected by the virus and how they view the threat. Rural areas, where the number of sick people and deaths is much lower, have recently ramped up pressure on Gov. Gavin Newsom to ease restrictions.
Last week, six counties in California’s sparsely populated north — Sutter, Yuba, Butte, Colusa, Tehama and Glenn — along with the region’s Republican state lawmakers sent a letter to the Democratic governor asking permission for businesses to reopen, but to little avail. The counties together claim fewer than 100 of the state’s more than 46,000 confirmed cases of COVID19. Statewide, more than 1,900 people have died.
Modoc County, meanwhile, has had zero cases of COVID19. Like the counties that petitioned the governor for leniency, the leaders there also have sent Newsom a letter, this one notifying him of their intention to drop the state sanctions Friday.
“At some point, there needs to be a beginning of the reopening process and, quite honestly, what better county for it to occur in,” said Ned Coe, a county supervisor and longtime cattle rancher. “We got a small population, and we’re COVID19free.”
Coe said that county officials have made certain that their reopening plan meets the terms the governor laid out as necessary before shelterinplace orders can be safely lifted. They include ensuring that businesses can provide adequate social distancing and having the means to test sick residents for the virus.
The governor, however, has not left it to local jurisdictions to decide when they’re ready to drop state directives. Newsom’s office did not respond to requests from The Chronicle for comment. Newsom, in the past, has said that his office would resist pressure to rescind the shelterinplace orders until health officials think it’s safe.
While acknowledging that circumstances differ in different areas, state health officials have worried that prematurely lifting the regulations in one place would lead to outbreaks of the virus that could spread elsewhere.
Modoc County’s plan for reopening comes with several conditions. Restaurants and bars must operate at half capacity. Churches and schools have to keep people 6 feet apart. It also advises those over 65 to stay home.
The county has only about 8,800 residents, about a third of whom live in Alturas, the only incorporated community. There’s a small hospital, a casino, several schools and a number of small towns across the 4,200 square miles of largely pine forests, alpine lakes and mountains. But for many services, residents in Alturas drive an hour and a half to Klamath Falls in Oregon or three hours to Reno or Redding.
“We don’t have a mall or a Walmart,” said Heather Hadwick, the county’s deputy director of the Office of Emergency Services, who is helping to spearhead the reopening. “Our movie theater is never packed, so we’re already social distancing ... and most of our hair salons have only one chair.”
Hadwick said it will be easy for most businesses to meet the county’s new rules for operation and, if not, they’ll do what’s necessary to comply.
Only one business in the county has so far qualified for a federal smallbusiness loan, county officials say, leaving most eager to reopen and begin making money again.
Farming and ranching drive much of the region’s economy, but hospitality and tourism, hard hit by the shelter in place, are big too. The rural county is poorer than most of California, with nearly 1 in 5 living in poverty and household incomes averaging about twothirds the state median.
Republicans outnumber Democrats more than 2 to 1, and 70% of the county’s votes went to President Trump in 2016.
“The CARES Act and some of the financial opportunities (in response to the coronavirus) didn’t seem to show up in Modoc County,” said Elizabeth Cavasso, a county supervisor and businesswoman who operates the historic Niles Hotel in Alturas. “It’s really strapped people here. Our county is aware of that and wants to do what it can to help businesses start back up.”
Jodie Larranaga, who owns the Brass Rail bar and grill in Alturas, said it hasn’t been worth keeping the lights on the past two months to pay staff to wait for the occasional takeout order. She’s excited to get back to work, and her patrons look forward to her return.
“Most people in this town are fed up,” Larranga said. “I’ve had people begging me for weeks to open.”
Like elsewhere in the state, Modoc County residents are mixed in how they feel about the virus and its dangers. Larranga thinks the threat has been overblown. But she believes people should be allowed to make up their own minds and act accordingly.
“I got people who are so happy to see each other that they’re going to sit together when I open,” she said. “They can make that choice. They’re grown adults.
“On the other hand, if they want to sit in another part of the restaurant,” she said, “they can.”