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May 2

City offices and buildings remain closed as restaurants and fitness centers prepare to open – Oskaloosa Herald

Fitness Comments Off on City offices and buildings remain closed as restaurants and fitness centers prepare to open – Oskaloosa Herald

OSKALOOSA Mahaska County is one of the 77 counties in Iowa that have been given the green light from Governor Kim Reynolds to slowly and safely reopen on May 1.

Monday afternoon, Gov. Reynolds signed a new proclamation that will allow restaurants, fitness centers, race tracks, malls and libraries to reopen with limits on how many individuals can patronize the businesses. Also on the list were churches and religious institutions. The governor is allowing religious and spiritual gatherings to resume as long as reasonable public health measures are taken.

As it relates to Oskaloosa, Mayor David Krutzfeldt said as much as he would like to get everything reopened again, city offices and buildings, including the Oskaloosa Public Library, will remain closed to the public.

No, at this point were not thinking of reopening the library, Krutzfeldt said. Most of the city services are still running, if you think about it: our street department, we do have the City Hall closed off to the public, but people working from home.

The mayor went on to say that city officials have been in constant communication with local health professionals to base a decision on when to reopen city operated businesses.

Krutzfeldt said, We are listening to their recommendations and then reacting accordingly.

Emergency Management Agency/911 Administrator Jamey Robinson said he is just as ready for this pandemic to be over as everyone else, but its going to take patience as moving too fast could potentially result in a spike in cases.

Trust me, I want things to be back to normal just as bad as everyone else. I havent seen my family in several weeks, he said. Now we just ask [everyone] to be patient and lets not push it so that we have a big blowout with cases and cause problems. Lets just get back to normal slowly.

Robinson said with a lot of conspiracies and speculations circulating the city, he assures the community that they are all doing what they can to bring an end to the social restrictions. He attributes the low case rate in the city to the aggressive approach that he and health officials took.

When this is over, people are gonna question what we did and theyre gonna say, well the numbers didnt show anything close to what the model showed initially, he said.

They didnt show that because of the steps that we took, which is great because we flattened the curve. From the county as a whole, I know people are getting frustrated and theres a lot of conspiracy talks out there [saying] were dragging this out, but we have to take the steps to do it and do it right.

Krutzfeldt praised the EMA staff and healthcare officials for their aggressive and rapid response to novel virus. With very little information known about the illness when cases first appeared in the county in March, officials acted swiftly to mitigate the infection rate.

I just cant say enough good stuff about them, he said. I think their reaction was aggressive and appropriate given the unknown nature of how fast the virus was moving and how this area would be affected by it. I really want to give as many accolades as I can over to emergency services for the way that they coordinated the efforts, and then how quickly the health professionals in the area became educated and also offered advice. We may, at some future date, look back and say, boy that was way more aggressive than it needed to be, but we did not know that at the time and so I think they did the very best that we can expect.

At the Mahaska County Law Center, Mahaska County Sheriff Russell Van Renterghem and Oskaloosa Police Chief Benjamin Boeke were both in agreement that they are in no hurry to reopen the facility to the community.

Boeke said when the decision was made to close the law center, both he and the sheriff consulted with EMA and when they decide to reopen a similar conversation is likely to take place. Boeke said the safety of their teams are their top priority and although the facility is closed, they remain fully operational and available for our community.

Van Renterghem said if they were to reopen and an outbreak happened inside the jail, it could be devastating. He went on to say that they will continue to take things slow for the foreseeable future.

Under the governors new proclamation, several businesses in the area are making plans to reopen on May 1. Many owners and CEOs, like CEO of the Mahaska County YMCA Matt Larson, have reached out to Robinson to discuss their plans for reopening. Robinson said these businesses are taking the safety of their patrons very seriously as they are seeking his advise and taking all necessary measures to prepare their respective businesses and organizations.

A few businesses that plan to reopen Monday are Penn Central Mall, the Mahaska County YMCA will reopen May 4, Tasos will reopen May 6, Peppertree will reopen May 11 and Maid Rite will reopen keeping their inside dining area closed to the public.

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Original post:
City offices and buildings remain closed as restaurants and fitness centers prepare to open - Oskaloosa Herald

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