Wednesday, April 8: Additional mandate issued for City of Seward

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Salons, some other businesses must now close under Seward-specific health measure

New health measures go into effect at 8 a.m. Wednesday, April 8, for the City of Seward. The measures will shut down businesses like salons, massage parlors and other nonessential businesses where a distance of 6 feet between people cannot be maintained.

The Seward City Council approved the ordinance at 8:10 p.m. April 7, after extensive discussion with local business owners, Four Corners Health Department and state agencies.

The ordinance will be in effect until at least May 6, but could be extended if the council deems necessary.

This is in addition to the Directed Health Measures mandated by Gov. Pete Ricketts March 27.

The mandate is from the City of Seward, not Four Corners Health Department. Other salons in the county are allowed to remain open at this time, if they choose.

According to Laura McDougall, director of Four Corners, has recommended that any mandates on salons and similar businesses come from individual cities or villages to make them more enforceable.

Those who violate the ordinance are subject to legal action, including a fine up to $500 or jail if the fine isn't paid.

"Each period of 24 hours during or on which a violation occurs or continues shall be deemed a separate offense," the ordinance says.

Mayor Josh Eickmeier said the goal is not to have police going around ticketing people. Instead, they will work to educate people on why it's important to follow the directive for the health of themselves and others.

"It's not to be heavy-handed. I don't really anticipate getting to the point where a fine would be necessary, but it does need to be available in case it gets to that point," Eickmeier said.

City Attorney Kelly Hoffschneider said the attorney general's office has provided guidance on how cities and law enforcement can work with the public instead of writing tickets or putting violators in jail.

"There would be several steps before it's a citation issue," Hoffschneider said.

The governor's mandate comes with a state fine of $100, but City Administrator Greg Butcher said if a violation occurs at the city level, the violator would be subject to the $500 city fine, not the $100 state fine.

Butcher estimated the ordinance would affect about a dozen businesses in Seward.

The ordinance states:

"1. Gatherings are hereby prohibited.

"Gatherings are defined as any event or convening that brings together more than ten (10) patrons, customers, or other invitees, excluding staff, in a single room or single space at the same time, including but not limited to, a school, daycare facility (including in-home facilities), gymnasium, fitness center, auditorium, stadium, arena, large event conference room, meeting hall, theater, library, or any other confined indoor or confined outdoor space.

"Gatherings includes but is not limited to weddings, funerals, parades, fairs, festivals, and concerts; or any event or convening with ten (10) or fewer patrons, customers, or other invitees where a minimum distance of six (6) feet between all individuals cannot be maintained in the venue. This includes, but is not limited to, tattoo parlors, massage parlors, barber shops and beauty/nail salons.

"If a venue is subdivided into multiple spaces separated by either physical walls or sufficient airspace each subdivided area may contain up to ten (10) patrons, customers or other invitees, excluding staff.

"2. This Ordinance shall not apply to courts of law, meetings or sessions of the Nebraska Legislature, or operations of any other political subdivision; medical providers or facilities, pharmacies; public utilities, essential federal, state, county, and city operations, continuity of business operations; logistics/distribution centers; congregate living settings; group homes and residential drug and/or mental health treatment facilities; shelters; public transportation; airport travel; necessary shopping at fuel stations, grocery stores, retail stores, or malls; election offices; polling places on an election day; or to dwelling units housing more than ten (10) related people. However, these excepted settings shall, to the extent possible, observe physical distancing practices by providing for the maintaining of at least six (6) feet of separation between individuals and all other applicable local, states, and federal guidelines for disease prevention and disinfection of surfaces."

Restaurants can still remain open for drive-thru, curbside pickup or delivery. Dining areas must remain closed in accordance with state mandates.

Other businesses, such as grocery stores, offices or manufacturing facilities, can still do business as long as customers and employees can stay 6 feet apart.

The ordinance came about after Douglas (Omaha) and Lancaster (Lincoln) counties passed their own health mandates two weeks ago that included the closure of salons, tattoo parlors and other places where people can't maintain a 6-foot distance from one another.

Businesses in Seward County began getting calls and visits from customers who live in those counties, asking to get their hair cut or nails done here instead.

Some received calls from Lincoln business owners asking to rent chairs in Seward and Milford to continue serving clients.

Linda Molthan, who owns The Cutting Corner in Seward, said she voluntarily closed her doors a week and a half ago because a couple of customers, after services were completed, indicated they had traveled to California and Colorado within one or two days of their appointments. Those areas are currently hotspots for the coronavirus.

"That's a real big concern of mine because we don't know where they've been, who they've been around and what they've been exposed to," Molthan said. "You can't give a service without being in that 6-foot distance. You can keep it under 10 (people), but that 6 feet is very hard."

Unintentionally, businesses like salons that have voluntarily closed for health reasons are making it riskier for others who haven't.

"Customers outside of the community now are calling those few that are still open," Molthan said.

Molthan asked the council to consider passing the ordinance as a way to help people who have voluntarily closed their businesses qualify for loans and other assistance from the Small Business Administration.

Molthan said she had gone through three or four different applications and quickly saw it was harder for her to qualify because there was no mandate to close her business.

Eickmeier and Butcher said they both heard from several other salon owners on April 7 with similar concerns.

"After hearing from these contacts today with concerns, I did speak with the governor's office. Others are getting calls that people are trying to access these benefits and having difficulties," Eickmeier said.

Jonathan Jank, president and CEO of the Seward County Chamber and Development Partnership, said the SBA's loan decisions are not necessarily based on health mandates in a given area.

"In our interpretation, it actually has to do more with how your income is affected, not necessarily whether your area is impacted by health measures," Jank said.

"We've seen a wide variety of businesses that haven't been shut down that have applied," said Zane Francescato, director of development for SCCDP. "Purely what it comes down to is has COVID affected cash flow? I'm not sure if the mandate is the right path to go, because I don't think it will matter as much as cash flow does."

Eickmeier said part of the reason for passing the ordinance is consistency.

"We're trying to prevent a sort of Swiss cheese approach to this. Seward is in the metropolitan statistical area with Lincoln and Lancaster County. It deals with how the workforce moves back and forth," Eickmeier said, since many Seward residents work in Lincoln. "If Lancaster County or the Lincoln/Lancaster County Health Department has something beyond what the governor's office has already mandated, we need to take a serious look at that because there could be additional restrictions in the future."

Eickmeier declared a citywide emergency related to COVID-19 on March 20.

Flag raising Friday

A small flag raising ceremony will be at 3 p.m. on Friday, April 10, at the Milford City Hall. Eagle Scout Nolan Eickhoff, who designed Milford's official city flag as his eagle scout project, will do the honors. The flag raising will be in place of an open house at the new building, since social distancing requirements have prohibited large gatherings at this time.

Testing situation changing rapidly for potential COVID-19 patients

Numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases are growing quickly in Nebraska and across the United States.

Community spread of the disease is contributing to the increase, but more testing availability makes those numbers seem like they're skyrocketing even more.

Laura McDougall, director of Four Corners Health Department, said the scene of COVID-19 testing is changing, but it can still take awhile to get results.

With the Four Corners district's first confirmed case, a man in his 50s from York County, McDougall said it took almost two weeks to get the results back.

“That person was tested on March 18. It took quite awhile for us to get that result back,” McDougall said on April 2, “not until any quarantines that would have resulted from that had expired.”

The department announced the confirmation on March 30, 12 days after the test was taken.

At that time, none of the people the man had come into contact with had shown any symptoms.

“We feel pretty confident about that, that there's not further spread in the community because of that case,” McDougall said.

The man's case came from travel outside of Nebraska, which McDougall deemed a “high-risk behavior” right now.

She said the people the Four Corners District is monitoring now are becoming less and less travel-related, which is good.

“When people become sick and have symptoms, their health care provider will tell them to go home (if they're not hospitalized), but we also quarantine the members of that household so that it's not out in the community being spread around,” McDougall said. “Moving forward, that's more the case of why someone would be in quarantine.”

Testing, though, is just beginning to get more inclusive, with the majority of tests being saved for priority groups.

“It was just hospital inpatients. Now, there are some outpatients, but they still need to have all the symptoms of potentially having COVID-19,” said Roger Reamer, CEO of Memorial Health Care Systems in Seward County, on April 2. “Residents and staff at residential facilities, healthcare personnel, public safety and first responders, people over 65 years old, and those with underlying health conditions that might be complicated by COVID-19, those are priority testing groups.”

Reamer said that could change within days or hours, as lab facilities are trying to increase the number of tests they can process in a day.

“What we report today may change by Monday or even by tomorrow,” Reamer said. “This testing thing changes so rapidly as we try to learn how we can do more testing.”

Nebraska case numbers

All 93 counties in Nebraska are now under Directed Health Measures from the state Department of Health and Human Services and Gov. Pete Ricketts.

As of noon on April 7, 478 Nebraskans have tested positive for COVID-19, with 6,961 testing negative.

Twelve Nebraskans have died in relation to the virus.

Thirty-five counties have confirmed cases.

Additional information can be found at http://dhhs.ne.gov/Pages/Coronavirus.aspx.