Idaho and Washington are each moving into new phases in their quests to recover from the coronavirus.
Idaho entered its first phase yesterday [Monday] and Washington enters its first phase today.
In Washington, that means state parks and other recreational areas have opened. Fishing and hunting are allowed. And golfers can go back to the links, with some restrictions. The city of Spokane’s four courses open today.
It’s also a day when Spokane elected officials will talk again with Governor Jay Inslee. They’re trying to convince him to give them more flexibility to build a reopening plan and open earlier than other urban areas.
“We know that if we can get the rules and the guidelines and the protocols in place, that business owners are going to be able to come up with ways to figure out how to do this safely and get our people back to work," Spokane Valley Mayor Ben Wick said. "That’s one of our utmost missions that we’re on right now is to how to take the guidance from the governor and how we can get into the hands of our businessowners.”
Mayor Nadine Woodward says she’s disappointed Spokane County wasn’t included on the list of 10 counties allowed to move more quickly. But she says they’ve convinced him to consider requests from counties to move at a different pace than the rest of the state.
“We are very thankful that the governor gave us some clarity on Friday as we were hoping to get on what opening our economies would look like," Woodward said.
She says elected officials from around Spokane County will continue to work on a regional plan to pitch to the governor.
“Getting some clarity too on what phase one would look like too for other businesses, like retail pickup, curbside, landscaping, house cleaning, car dealerships and things like that," she said.
Woodward hopes the county will be allowed to move forward faster than the three weeks the governor has allocated for each phase.