City loosens COVID-19 restrictions

Effective noon today (and likely by the time you read this), a resolution passed by the City of Custer at a special meeting yesterday (Tuesday) morning will loosen some of the restrictions set forth when the city’s ordinance that declared a public health emergency relating to COVID-19 took effect April 9.

The council unanimously (minus Kris Blom, who was not at the meeting) passed the resolution, which applies to restaurants, food courts, food service locations, coffee houses, bars, breweries, distilleries, wineries, etc. that offer food and beverage for on-site consumption, including alcohol licenses with on-sale privileges, video lottery casino operations and all other retail and service businesses as well as churches.

The resolution states the aforementioned businesses or churches may allow a maximum of 10 patrons or one patron per 125 square feet of indoor space, whichever is greater, and the same restrictions apply to exterior square footage. Occupied tables and barstools must be six feet apart, all food and beverages must be ordered, paid for, delivered to and consumed at the patron’s table or barstool and social distancing must be observed while waiting for service or entry into a business.

The resolution also includes recommendations to “be considered by all businesses,” which include following all recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, screening staff for illness before each shift begins, use menus, serving dishes and cutlery that are disposable, one-way aisle travel plans at retail stores, cleaning and disinfecting each video lottery machine within a casino between each customer, encouraging the wearing of masks that cover the employee’s nose and mouth in retail and service businesses and establishing enhanced cleaning/disinfecting procedures.

Businesses may request in writing exceptions from the council that would allow them to modify compliance with these requirements so long as their alternative continues to implement social distancing requirements.

“The city council will not approve exceptions which completely exempt a business from implementing social distancing or from following CDC guidelines,” the resolution states.

The resolution lays out penalties for businesses in violation of the resolution, which will first be in the form of a written warning. Subsequent violations will be charged as a Class II Misdemeanor as well as possible suspension for up to 60 days of any operating agreement with the city. The resolution will remain in effect until May 31 unless otherwise repealed, modified or extended.

Recreational facilities, public pools, health clubs, athletic facilities and theaters and other indoor and outdoor venues where people congregate, including music and entertainment venues are not included in the amendment and will remain closed until further notice.

At one point, 60 participants were listening via voice conferencing, although only a handful offered comments. Among those who spoke were Dr. Lisa Brown of Monument Health, who said she was speaking for herself as a physician, adding it was not the role of Monument Health to dictate what people may or may not do, but said there are modeling predictions that show social distancing keeps the curve of the virus flat, but even at the current level, hospitals will still be overrun with severe cases. Brown said the resolution offered is reasonable, but cautioned anything done will bring the curve and peak higher and sooner. Brown said it is “inevitable” a peak is coming.

Brown said she realizes the restrictions in place now cannot continue indefinitely.

“If we all stayed in a hole, the curve would stay flat and we would never get this,” she said. “That’s not tenable. We can’t do that. That’s not real.”

Brown said one of the biggest issues with COVID-19 is that there are asymptomatic carriers and it only takes one person who does not show symptoms to spread the disease. She said modeling and mathematics do not take into account an influx of tourists.

“There is not a good way to project what impact that is going to have,” she said.

Brown said seeing how the community reacts to three or four weeks of the looser restrictions is part of learning more and taking precautions. Once cases show up, she said, it will be “really hard to put the horse back in the barn.”

“There is no precedent,” she said. “It’s going to be a very fluid situation.”

Barb Edwards, owner of Frontier Bar and Grill, posed a hypothetical scenario  in which her building had room for four more people and a family of six arrived, asking if she would be allowed to seat the family. Herman said there are going to be many scenarios such as this that come about and said it is impossible for a resolution to cover every possible situation. He reiterated the city would work with businesses allowed to be open on specific plans it wants to present as to how it could be open while still adhering to social distancing recommendations.

“You’re going to have to use your own best judgment on how best to comply,” said city attorney Chris Beesley. “I can’t tell you how to run your business. We are going to ask you all to voluntarily comply to the extent you can. This is a very serious pandemic and we all have to work together.”

On the issue of churches, pastor Neil Magnuson of Crossroads Church wondered if the looser restrictions were going to be so hard to enforce if it was worth writing them down at all. Herman said there are people who only follow rules when they are written rules.

“Unfortunately, they need to be in place,” he said.

Churches may submit a plan to the council on how they would handle social distancing requirements.

Other issues addressed included:

• Elective surgeries at Monument Health facilities, which will resume June 1 at the earliest.

• Special events, such as blood drives, which can be approved or declined by the council after a formal request.

• Restaurants will still do curbside pickup and delivery. The resolution only adds to the ordinance, it does not replace it.

“I’d like to remind everyone we are not discouraging (CDC) recommendations,” Herman said. “This is just giving people an opportunity to get their business doors open. People should still take all the precautions moving forward.”

One man at the meeting via phone asked why restrictions cannot be loosened more, while also wondering what the threshold is for loosening restrictions more, as there are no cases in Custer County.

“There seems to be no way out of it,” he said.

Herman said if these restrictions prove sustainable, the city can look at loosening them further in the future.

Alderwoman Nina Nielsen lauded the community for the exceptional job it has done following CDC recommendations.

“I’m proud of this community. I hope as we go forward, we will be safe,” she said.