County begins likely stuttered march to economic recovery
EL CENTRO -- Beginning Friday Imperial County moved into Stage 2 of reopening plan, with some businesses being allowed to resume with curbside service only.
Permitted curbside retail includes stores that sell books, jewelry, home and furnishing items, music, flowers, sporting goods, shoes and toys.
Many other larger and essential stores were already allowing their customers to enter stores, have delivery and pickup.
The Big 5 Sporting Goods Store parking lot in El Centro was packed Friday afternoon.
Businesses excluded from this relaxation of the emergency rules include higher risk facilities such as offices, dinein restaurants, shopping malls, schools, childcare, outdoor museums and open gallery spaces.
They will reopen at a later stage of Stage 2 on a date to be determined.
Imperial County Supervisor Chairman Luis Plancarte and Public Health Director Janette Angulo on Friday presented the county’s recovery plan.
Mayors and other city officials present praised the county for the work on the roadmap and agreed to follow the county lead.
Plancarte described the joint approach a statement of unity.
He said everyone understands and sympathizes with the hardships the businesses are enduring.
“We have felt the pain,” he said.
For the county to progress and move to higher risk Stage 2,
Stage 3 and then Stage 4 certain metrics have to be met, Angulo said.
Those would include not more than 18 positive cases in a two-week period, no deaths in that time frame and a minimum daily testing capacity of 1.5 tests for every thousand residents, meaning 270 tests would have to be available.
The process to move to Stage 2 higher risk reopening includes conducting a self-evaluation, meeting established metrics, developing a containment plan in conjunction with local hospitals and county stakeholders and submitting a written attestation signed by the Imperial County health officer to the state.
Angulo admitted that on Wednesday the county had less than 200 tests, but added more tests are being made available every day.
She also said there is a high probability the county will experience continued outbreaks that will force it to revert to earlier stages of the plan during the reopening process.
“We are still in the middle of this pandemic, especially in Imperial County,” Angulo said.
Some counties, she said, may move faster or even slower, but the county needs to demonstrate it is ready with a containment plan.
Hospitals capacity will have to be at 35 percent for COVID-19 patients, she said.
“If we see a surge at any time we will go back and (take) the appropriate measures,” she said.
The plan to allow more businesses to reopen curbside did not change the bar much for smaller mom and pop businesses, some which have no websites, so they rely on customers who browse for merchandise.
Imperial Chamber of Commerce Director Susan Paradis said there are many smaller business who will not benefit from Stage 2.
“I think it’s a step in the right direction, but there are many businesses that cannot (open under Stage 2),” she said.
She again questioned the logic of allowing big-box stores with hundreds of customers to be open, while mom and pop stores with two to three customers cannot shop inside.
“We are hopeful, and we support the measures,” she said. “I am glad we took a step forward.”
She also thinks it could another six to eight weeks for the higher-risk businesses in Stage 2 to reopen, putting these smaller stores at great risk.
The county also had to get a buy-in from the city of El Centro, which announced 10 days ago its own plans to reopen on Monday. But backed off on that plan after meeting with county officials.
El Centro City Councilwoman Cheryl Viegas-Walker said the
City Council was unhappy with the county’s initial plan, so the council decided to formulate its own plan.
“They (the county) did not like that,” she said.
County and city officials met Tuesday in a two-on-two meeting to try to come to some common ground.
Walker, who was in this meeting, said while the county did not need El Centro’s blessing the two sides looked into ways to move forward and work together rather than to have a standoff.
“We came together with a plan that will benefit the entire community.” Both the city and county agreed to some modifications.
Walker said the city was never going to open the Aquatic Center immediately and instead planned to open it at the end of May after hiring staff and making the other preparations.
Angulo said it was and is a pleasure to work with all of the cities and chambers of commerce in coming up with the recovery plan.
“This is a collective effort,” she said. “We all play a very, very important role in this.”
Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia issued a written statement of support for the collaboration.
“I am grateful for our collective Imperial County leadership for uniting on a coordinated roadmap to recovery,” he wrote. “These past few weeks have been incredibly rough on our families and businesses. I would like to thank our county and city officials for their commitment to uphold public health and work together on a clear path to recovery.”
El Centro Mayor Efrain Silva said the city agrees with the county’s decision to open up the economy in a careful way.
“This is only a plan, so businesses do everything you are supposed to do,” he said. “It will take a complete effort, so we can move forward.”
Calexico Mayor Bill Hodge said that city’s council decided on Wednesday to follow the county’s roadmap to recovery plan.
“We need more testing before we can open up businesses,” Hodge said. “I understand we are doing that now. If we do not have more testing we will see a surge.” Plancarte said this the first step. “This is a fluid plan,” he said. “Understand we are working with ongoing changes.”
Imperial Mayor Darrell Pechtl echoed Paradis’ opinion that the state and governor are treating small businesses differently than other larger stores.
He said the county worked diligently on the plan and tried to modify it for small businesses, but the state would not let them.
“The governor’s office is turning a deaf ear on recognizing the smaller businesses,” he said. “I am not satisfied with that.”
He said most of the people around Imperial feel the same way, adding he wants the county to proceed gradually.
“We are all in this together,” he said.