By Alyssa Schnugg
News editor
alyssa.schnugg@hottytoddy.com
Oxford’s Shelter-in-Place resolution will remain in place until at least April 30.
The Oxford Board of Aldermen met this morning during a special meeting and voted to extend the resolution another two weeks.
The resolution approved by the aldermen on April 2 adopts the intent of Executive Order 1466 signed by Gov. Tate Reeves earlier this month.
“This extension follows the same terms of that order,” Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill said Wednesday.
Tannehill said the Board is committed to putting together a plan next week on how and when to “reopen” Oxford.
“Knowing if there are surges of case numbers—that may not be possible—but our goal is to have a plan that dictates how we will reopen and what we expect and what that time frame looks like.”
Tannehill said the plan will be put together with the input of medical professionals, the Mississippi Department of Health and Emergency Management officials.
“It is our hope that by next week we will have a plan to share with the community,” Tannehill said.
Aldermen Mark Huelse said he was comfortable with extending the resolution until April and suspects Gov. Reeves will do the same. Reeves announced Tuesday that he would make a decision on the statewide Shelter-in-Place order by Friday after speaking with other governors and President Donald Trump today.
“What does it look like as we ease back into normalcy?” he asked. “It’s not just going to be a switch and let’s go. We have to ease back into it, but what is the right way to do that? We need our professionals to let us know what is the right way and safe way to do that.”
Tannehill said she spoke to Dr. Jason Waller with Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi and he told her the state expects the peak of COVID-19 to hit between Friday and Tuesday.
“He also said there may be some rollout and pull back because we’ll see spikes again,” Tannehill said. “Thinking of business owners, that’s what we don’t want to happen. We want to roll out as slow as possible to avoid having to do any more full shelter-in-place (resolutions).”
Tannehill said the city’s goal is to have everything back up and running by the fall.
“We want to do whatever we can to protect this community and put the pieces in place so that by Aug. 1, we are ready to go,” she said.
Aldermen Janice Antonow said the reopening of Oxford should be a slow process.
“There may be things we put into place that some businesses won’t like,” Antonow said. “I don’t think restaurants will just be able to fully open right away. Maybe they’ll have to fill every other table and have waiters wear masks.”
Aldermen Jason Bailey suggested the aldermen meet again next week to discuss the progress of the plan.
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