Ignacio is showing signs of reopening alongside other parts of La Plata County, despite the small town’s proximity to large coronavirus outbreaks in New Mexico.
The next wave of business reopenings arrives Friday for the town, but residents should expect to see a closed Town Hall until late May. Ignacio is following the Safer La Plata order, which involves a phased approach to reopening businesses that is a week behind the statewide strategy. Under both orders, Colorado residents are encouraged to continue staying at home as much as possible to prevent the virus’ spread.
Mark Garcia, Ignacio interim town manager, said the county’s decision to delay reopenings was particularly motivated by the serious outbreaks taking place in San Juan County, including Farmington and the Navajo Nation.
As of Wednesday: Colorado had 17,830 confirmed COVID cases; La Plata County, 63; the Navajo Nation, 2,625; and San Juan County, New Mexico, 844 cases. Ignacio is 8 miles from the New Mexico border.
“The fear was that if we open up too quickly, we might be attracting visitors from that area that would be problematic for our citizens who have done a great job of flattening the curve and keeping the infection rate down,” Garcia said during a Town Board meeting Monday.
The town is also surrounded by the Southern Ute Indian Reservation, which continued its stay-at-home order, restricting travel to essential-only purposes. The tribe also restricted most non-tribal traffic through the reservation in March.
Garcia said the town had not discussed restricting nonresident traffic – if the New Mexico outbreak became more severe, those discussions probably would start with San Juan Basin Public Health, he said.
In Ignacio, salons and other businesses that offer personal services can open Friday.
Town Hall will remain closed until around May 26, although the board planned to revisit the opening date at the May 11 board meeting. Garcia said he has been able to remotely respond to most community needs, like permit requests, utility billing and public works projects.
“I think it’d be prudent for us to continue in this same fashion for another couple of weeks,” he said.
Curbside retail, one-on-one real estate showings and elective medical and dental procedures restarted April 27. Restaurants, bars, breweries, summer camps and special events are not allowed to open at this time, according to SJBPH.
Businesses and workplaces are required to self-certify that they can carry out strict precautions before reopening, according to the Safer La Plata order. The self-certification process is a checklist that covers how employers are protecting employee health, ensuring social distancing, limiting crowds, incorporating sanitation and creating signage to communicate restrictions to customers.
The enforcement group is discussing how to enforce compliance with the requirements and verify that businesses are taking safety measures, Garcia said.
“This is in anticipation of nothing drastically changing in San Juan County. In the event it gets significantly worse, and those numbers have been climbing, San Juan Basin Public Health may recommend to push this softer open date out further,” Garcia said.
smullane@durangoherald.com
