CHARLESTOWN, Ind. (WDRB) -- As Indiana’s governor gradually gives the green light for the opening of businesses, some mayors think it is too soon for their communities.
“I think that even the first part of his plan is a little too early,” said Charlestown Mayor Treva Hodges. She is all for things to get back to normal for her city, but at a time the businesses think it is safe and right.
Last week, Gov. Eric Holcomb released a phased approach that he hopes would let businesses resume operation by July 4, but Hodges said she has her own phased plan.
“Ours is based off of criteria of declining numbers, hospital availability, testing availability, anti-body testing, and those kinds of things to see when we move forward,” said Hodges. “I don’t include dates in mine. Viruses don’t understand dates that is not how they work.”
Charlestown Mayor Treva Hodges
She wants to limit the amount of time in city parks to one hour and meetings of no more than 10 people during the first phase.
The city’s Little League National practices that planned on starting May 11 she says will now be held in the first part of June.
Businesses can take their time opening based on what Holcomb said – they can open later if they choose – just not sooner.
“We are probably a little behind the governor’s directive to hit some of these benchmarks – we’re glad we have them but we are going to be very cautious how we move forward,” said New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan.
Gahan believes it’s hard to make a blanket statement applying to an entire state, especially with positive COVID-19 cases varying. “It is going to differ from municipality and county to county it’s just the nature of it,” he said.
Although Gov. Holcomb hopes pools will open in June or July, Gahan said that won’t be the case for New Albany’s River Run Water Park – it will be closed the rest of the year. He wanted to make the announcement early so the employees could have time to find other work this summer.
On Friday, Jeffersonville Mayor Mike Moore said he is looking forward to opening businesses as quickly - but safely - as possible.
Jeffersonville Mayor Mike Moore
“We’re going to continue to listen to the experts and take the advice they give us,” Moore said. “I definitely want things back rolling certainly by sometime in early July.”
Hodges said she hopes a re-occurrence of the virus doesn’t make the economy take another step back from where it is now.
“The economy has tanked before and we have recovered,” Hodges said. “This is not permanent. It’s a temporary pause of our normal daily activities. Things that we’ve had to collectively go through before - each generation has it’s horrible thing and this is ours.”
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