County, Town show cooperation toward phased-in COVID-19 reopenings

Both County and Town COVID-19 Emergency Management officials, along with Commonwealth’s Attorney John Bell briefed the media Thursday afternoon on reopening plans tied to Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s Executive Order 61 setting guidelines for a phased-in reopening of public and private sector operations and businesses.

Present for the County were Joint County-Town Emergency Management Team and county board Chairman Walter Mabe and Deputy County Emergency Management Coordinator Rick Farrall, as well as County Administrator Doug Stanley, Sheriff Mark Butler and recording Clerk Emily Ciarrocchi. Only Mabe and Farrall spoke on the County side. Interim Town Manager Matt Tederick represented the Town of Front Royal.

From left, Interim Town Manager Matt Tederick – where’d that beard come from, Matt – a masked County Deputy Emergency Services Coordinator Rick Farrall, and County Board and Covid-19 Emergency Team Chairman Walt Mabe. Photos by Roger Bianchini. Video by Mark Williams, Royal Examiner.

“In general, the lobbies of both the government center and town hall will be open to the public on Tuesday, May 26th so our citizens have access to the Revenue and Treasurer’s Offices, as well as to pay their utilities and tax bills,” Farrall said of the county-wide “soft opening”. Other departments will remain closed to walk-in traffic, but available by phone or appointment, he added. Farrall said other governmental departments were targeted for re-opening in mid-June as part of the governor’s Phase 2 plan.

“As we anticipate transitioning into Phase One tomorrow (May 15), I want to remind everyone that you’re safer at home, especially if you’re vulnerable,” Farrall said, observing, “If you notice the change in the words, the governor is going from “stay at home” to “safer at home” now. So, it doesn’t mean you have to go out, but you can come out.”

Addressing an issue for many more rural, less impacted localities – a one size fits all series of COVID-19 pandemic precautionary executive orders, Farrall noted that some harder-hit areas like Northern Virginia to our immediate east will remain at Phase Zero, staying under state-ordered restrictions through May 28.

“Tomorrow, as we begin to reopen more of our businesses we should expect that the county and town, as well as other Shenandoah Valley localities, will see their fair share of visitors from the east, especially during the Memorial Day weekend,” Farrall said echoing an observation in Royal Examiner’s article on the Town COVID-19 response Resolution approved Monday.

Farrall also reported that updated stats indicate Warren County’s second death from the COVID-19 Coronavirus, a 200% jump in the last week from our two-month carried zero deaths. Warren County’s reported case count is up to 90, with hospitalizations at 11.

Valley Health’s COVID-19 testing tent on Commerce Avenue, a block from the WCGC.

Farrall urged continued vigilance, saying the threat should be expected to extend through the summer.

Interim Town Manager Matt Tederick represented the Town of Front Royal, addressing and responding to questions about the impact on the Town’s reopening plans of the somewhat aggressively worded Resolution approved four days earlier seeking the governor’s blessing to the town council’s “asserting its competence to determine when to open up local businesses”.

In that regard, Tederick said the Town would “follow the guidelines of the executive order (61 on phased-in reopenings), we’re following the safer at home, page one guidelines, which are part of the executive order,” Tederick told the joint Emergency Management Team and others present.

That was good news as Emergency Management Team Chairman Mabe later observed in his closing remarks, “We have to work together, none of it’s easy. And I know the hardships of the families and businesses and how they’re feeling. It only takes one person to be the Typhoid Mary of 2020 and make Warren County a hot spot for infection …” The Typhoid Mary comment led to a post-meeting history lesson by Bell in response to a question on details of the woman credited with spreading a Typhoid epidemic to perhaps a million people in the early 1900s.

Commonwealth’s Attorney John Bell, at left, said pubic safety, not an increased criminal case docket is the goal of law enforcement and public safety officials regarding pandemic response mandates.

Uh oh – she was a well thought of public cook, Bell pointed out.

But Mabe focused on the positive to close the meeting, concluding, “So, continue to practice social distancing; wear a mask in public; pay attention to hygiene issues, and don’t go out with a fever.

We can beat this thing. Remember we are strong together.”

See these reports in their entirety, along with Commonwealth’s Attorney John Bell’s addressing legal aspects and challenges to the governor’s previous executive orders as they relate to 1st and 2nd Amendment issues, in this exclusive Royal Examiner video: