City of Alpine issued the following announcement on April 27.
Governor Abbott issued a series of Executive Orders yesterday and a Plan to gradually open up business here in Texas. GA-18, GA-19 and GA-20 are posted on our website along with that 64 page plan (https://www.cityofalpine.com/news_detail_T10_R94.php). I would recommend taking some time to read that plan if you've not already done so.
With these new Orders being passed effective Friday May 1, 2020, the Previous Order will expire on Thursday April 30, 2020. The Governor spelled out techniques and expectations to help open Texas in a way he felt would be safe for our citizens. Many of the same sheltering techniques were spelled out. Not all the businesses are allowed to open on May 1st, and those given permission will be in a limited fashion.
The most prevalent items to Alpine are the opening of restaurants for dining in and retail store establishments serving non-essential products. Restaurants and Retail are allowed to open to 25% capacity.
Bars, Gyms, Personal Service establishments and others will be addressed in an upcoming Order.
Those counties that have 5 or less Covid-19 cases can petition the Department of State Health Services to allow their restaurants and retail stores to open to 50% capacity. Judge Cano would need to go through an Attestation of eight key items that the DSHS would review. Those items are listed on page 44 of the Governor's plan. When the Judge is ready to go through that petition process, I anticipate he will share those eight certifications with the public.
Hotel Occupancy has also been an important item for Alpine. With the expiration of the Governor's Shelter at Home Order, that allows for discretionary travel again. Travelers outside of Essential Services will start coming to Alpine and the Big Bend Region again.
The Governor stressed several times, no business is required to open. That is still a decision each business owner will need to make on their own.
A larger concern that continues to be relevant is how to protect our older population as the state and country begin to open back up. There have been several local groups helping with the shopping for the elderly and we want to see that continue. Our team is also working on some great health and hygiene posters to take around town to our local businesses. We are also putting together information for the Sunshine House and Food Pantry to distribute. It's super important we stay vigilant in our utilization of the CDC practices and those recommendations of our healthcare providers.
The Governor also spoke to the fact that he did not want orders in the future to supersede the plan he's laid out for the State.
We've continued with our website advancements and work to keep the site a great repository for local information on Covid-19. Geo, Chris and others are developing new information daily and we appreciate their energy and efforts.
As an aside, I was disappointed to see some of the scare messaging last week that went out discussing people's fear of being arrested for not following the Governor's or Local Executive Orders. Our local Police Chief and team have done a fantastic job at being visible and easily reachable during the pandemic. They have issued one citation for non-compliance and that's it. Citizens and business owners have done a wonderful job at communicating with our team and I thought the suggestions otherwise were not grounded on factual information. With that said, we continue to push information out on our website regularly and our teams are working diligently to have factual data and information on how to open back up effectively while keeping the health of our population in mind.
We will have our Special City Council meeting this week (Wednesday April 29th at 5:30pm). It will be on Zoom and the login credentials are posted on our website. We hope you can attend.
Thank you for your continued efforts in keeping Alpine a safe and wonderful place to live.
Original source can be found here.
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