As counties throughout the North State continue to move further into Stage Two of reopening, we’ve been checking in to see how plans are progressing.
On Thursday, NSPR’s Marc Albert spoke with Russ Brown, media and community relations coordinator for Yuba County, about what businesses are being allowed to reopen and what’s being done to ensure safety. Here are highlights from their conversation.
Interview Highlights
On what’s opening as the county moves further into Stage Two
More dining restaurants are going to be opening up and that's good. But again, a little bit different. Won't be as crowded in there because there will be space between the tables to make sure it's safe.
The state does look to the second part of Stage Two for the opening of schools, but Yuba and Sutter region along with other surrounding counties don't see that as quite as safe, so they won't be allowing that in Stage Two.
On ABC sending inspectors last week to Yuba restaurants saying they can’t serve alcoholic beverages
I know there's been some clarification in terms of how restaurants can operate and they can indeed have people come in and eat and order drinks to go with a meal. That is allowed. I think there was some lack of clarity when ABC came in and initially asked businesses to close because they simply had a bar in their business. So all those bars could have let people take home drinks, according to the temporary rules they have in place. So that's been cleared up a little bit. It sounds like the restaurant can open and if they serve alcohol, they can, but if they have a bar in a restaurant, they cannot open that bar area and have people congregate in there.
On how the county is making sure businesses are sticking to the rules
We are really working in terms of the one-on-one with the compliance group. And the compliance group is just the Yuba-Sutter compliance group. Businesses call them and they kind of go back and forth, 'I have this type of business. What do I have to do?' Or 'My business is kind of a niche business. It kind of falls between a couple categories. May I operate? Can I operate with modifications on how I do business?' There are those conversations taking place constantly.
And we have set up a hotline and an emailso that people can get that kind of information. We also have a number for those people that see things that they're concerned about.
Because a lot of residents certainly don't like the protocols that are put in place. Others demand them. So we find ourselves in between that. These restrictions are important, they are vital to put in place, because we cannot handle any significant surge in COVID-19 cases. I know people feel like it's done, it's over. It's not gonna happen. We don't know that. We're still counting cases every day now in the Yuba-Sutter area, so we know it's with us. If it gets into a large group and spreads quickly, it can actually inundate and overwhelm a very, very fragile health system that we have here. We have a single hospital for two counties. And while it's doing well now, that may not always be the case if we have a significant surge.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. Click the “play” button to listen to the entire interview.
