Jackson mayor announces plan to help local economy
JACKSON, Tenn. – On Thursday, Jackson Mayor Scott Conger announced the city’s plan to start reopening the economy after COVID-19 closures.
“This is really going to be driven by our residents if we can maintain those social distancing guidelines,” Mayor Conger said. “We can mitigate the spread of the virus, then this will be a very aggressive plan to reopen. If we see some spread, and we see those high risk folks and people start going to the hospital, we will have to go back to phase one and go back to phase two.”
Mayor Conger says the plan will be re-evaluated and implemented after the statewide “safer-at-home” order expires April 30, and after local government and healthcare officials look at the governor’s plan, which is set to start in May.
“As we reopen, it is also going to be incumbent upon those businesses to do what they are asked to do because, if we don’t, then we will see more spread, and we will go backwards and not meet these guidelines,” said president/CEO of the Jackson Chamber, Kyle Spurgeon.
The city and county are currently in the flattening the curve stage with limited travel, cancellation of large gatherings and closures of many businesses.
Phase one will start with officials easing back to a “safer-at-home” order, bringing employees back to work with masks and gloves and allowing businesses to operate at half capacity.
Phase two will open retail and restaurants, factories, companies and non-essential services like hair and nail salons, churches and gyms. Parks will also reopen in this stage.
Phase three will have all businesses and restaurants open and travel restrictions lifted. Phase four will be the reopening of bars and night clubs.
“It is going to be driven by the people, and, as long as we are all doing, what we are supposed to do. It is fairly aggressive,” Mayor Conger said.
The owner of Old Town Spaghetti Store on Carriage House Drive and he says he hopes to open up his business by the end of the month.
“We’ve installed hand sanitizer throughout the restaurant,” owner Bob Baudo saiD. “Our staff are constantly washing their hands and disinfecting soaps, plus we use bleach and water solution to sanitize tables all the time. [We’ll] start with our employees wearing masks throughout probably the first few weeks or so after opening up. But our people do have their temperatures taken, sanitizing money. We put money in the microwave, sanitizing every credit card that a customer gives us with bleach water.”
But officials say if the community starts to regress, with more cases confirmed and a threat to the at-risk population, the reopening will have to be pushed back for safety.
“The economy is going to have to get going again, and we are going to have to count on the individuals to do what they need to do,” said the mayor’s assistant, Alex Reed. “We are all very, very concerned about that, and that is why we also built in the steps to show that if we regress, we will have to go backwards the steps.”
During this morning’s press conference with the health department, Mayor Conger said businesses could start to reopen May 1 at the earliest if cases begin to decrease.
