AIRWAY HEIGHTS – Frustration with the economic impacts of Washington’s statewide shutdown of most businesses due to COVID-19 boiled to the surface during the City Council’s meeting Monday night, April 20, with at least one member asking if there was anything the city could do on its own to reopen some businesses.
During council reports, Mayor Kevin Richey relayed details to members of a phone call he and other area mayors, including Cheney’s Chris Grover and Spokane’s Nadine Woodward, had last week with Gov. Jay Inslee on impacts being felt by measures to slow the spread of the disease. Richey said the mayors pressed the governor on when he would relax stay-at-home orders, providing examples of industries they felt could be added to the essential business lists and reopened while safely practicing social distancing measures, such as residential construction.
“The long and short of it is he basically told us no for everything,” Richey said.
Richey said the governor claimed Eastern Washington was seeing a surge in new COVID-19 cases, although Woodward pointed out Spokane County’s total number was just over 300. According to the state Department of Health, as of April 19 the county had 308 confirmed cases with 17 deaths — including a Medical Lake resident and employee at Eastern State Hospital who died April 13. The county had conducted 7,281 tests, with a 4.2 percent positive rating, much lower than the state’s overall 8.6 rating.
In an April 16 news conference, Inslee pointed to the need for more testing — especially a solid system of testing, and if positive, tracing and contacting people that person encountered. Inslee said early on in the pandemic the need to conduct about 15,000 tests daily was discussed, adding the state is currently doing about 4,500.
Richey said during the call the governor also said he wanted to see two consecutive weeks of reductions in confirmed cases, adding the models he was seeing were not encouraging. Richey also said state officials were going to have further conversations about possible steps that could be taken to re-start some businesses, but hadn’t heard any additional details.
“I have a feeling, based on the conversation we had, that he’s going to extend the stay-home order past May 4, but that’s just a guess,” he added. “Not a lot of encouraging news.”
Richey said the mayors tried to convince Inslee of perhaps taking a county-by-county approach to restrictions where by some counties not experiencing many cases could begin economic recovery measures before other counties that were still seeing spikes. The governor said his models weren’t showing those cases yet.
Councilwoman Veronica Messing asked Richey if Inslee provided any specifics on what needed to be reached before restrictions would be lifted. Richey said he was “pretty vague” on specifics and attempts to present examples of businesses that might be reopened weren’t positively received.
“He’s not willing to budge on any of this,” Richey said, a statement that elicited some frustration on other council members.
Councilman Larry Bowman asked if there was anything Airway Heights could do as a city to possibly reopen some businesses, adding he had heard of other cities and counties taking measures to sidestep some of the restrictions and get their economies restarted. City Manager Albert Tripp said he was not familiar with any legal steps the city could take to circumvent the state’s orders.
Richey said he didn’t necessarily disagree with Inslee’s measures so far, but felt a plan needed to be in place and didn’t feel the governor really had one. Messing also voiced support for the governor and his actions.
Tripp also noted that local health officials were advocating for more robust testing, tracing and contact steps before easing the restrictions.
John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.
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