One topic that prompted a lot of conversation and concern at the Emergency Operations Center meetings last week was the possibility of reopening Pacific County.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife asked the opinion of the Mayors and Commissioners in attendance their thoughts on reopening public lands.
WDFW needed to get a local feel on this subject. Many elected officials expressed their concerns.
"It's not the part when they are hunting or fishing by the stream in the woods," said Pacific County Commissioner Frank Wolfe. "It's when they pack up to go home and swing into town to get some gas and some groceries and all that other stuff. That's where we have people from outside the area who are coming in here. Frankly, we have no way of knowing and they have no way of knowing if they have been exposed or not from wherever they are coming from. We are opening a crack on a door that could be a dangerous door. I think we need to not minimize the fact that whatever activity that we are making is considered essential, and therefore allowed, that we are not opening the door to 'let's fill up the market who are shopping for stuff on their way home. And may very well spread something around that they don't even know that they have until they get back to Seattle.'"
"I don't know to what degree they would like to open the public lands or what their plan is exactly, but I would not have a problem easing the restrictions somewhat," said Commissioner Mike Runyon. "I think people need to get out. People are tired of sitting at home. I would like to see them relaxed somewhat if possible."
"I would like to see it relaxed a little bit too," said South Bend Mayor Julie Struck.
The discussion continued with concerns coming out about the possible movement of people from hot spots coming to visit. Most of the relaxation of regulations that the elected officials voiced centered around letting residents go to parks and walking on the beach. The opinions of those present seemed to align with Governor Inslee's Stay Home proclamation.
It was pointed out that Health Officer Dr. Krager can actually make the closure of Pacific County, but he could not make the restriction more relaxed than what the governor ordered.
According to the Pacific County Emergency Management Agency Director Scott McDougall, the goal is to keep a balance within Pacific County to maintain people's health. "We definitely understand that we've done a really good job social distancing," said McDougall. "We've done a really good job of keeping people away. We have kept the virus out of our community to a certain degree. We want to make sure that when this is over and the rest of the state starts moving that we don't open things up [too quickly] and make things bad here."
"We are never going to stop the virus from being here," said EOC Logistics Section Chief Tessa Clements. "What we are trying to do is mitigate the pressure on the healthcare system. To be able to take care of the people coming into the hospital system who are severely affected with the virus. My main concern is that when this all ends and everyone gets out and the contact happens all at once then our hospitals are going to be overwhelmed. Going slowly might be a big important deal because if we open all at once on May 4th - we have done nothing but stopped time for a minute and we will be back where we started. It makes more sense to slowly start opening things, so our health care systems have the ability to navigate that."
So far Pacific County does not have the issue of widespread COVID-19 infections that would overwhelm the local hospitals. The hope among the Pacific County leaders is that a slow, soft opening will stop this issue from ever becoming a problem.
"The process of opening things up is going to be a graduated process," said McDougall. "We're not going to be opening everything up all at once. Even if the Stay Healthy, Stay Home order is lifted by May 4, the process for reopening the state is going to be a gradual process."