Warren County reopening okayed

LAKE GEORGE — Life in Warren County and Lake George Village is now crawling back toward normalcy. The Capital Region, which includes Warren County, met updated state guidelines May 19 and was granted permission to begin the process of reopening business and industrial activity halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The North Country region, which includes the northern Adirondack communities, reached that milestone on May 15. Warren County Administrator Ryan Moore announced mid-day Tuesday that the county could now move forward in the initial steps of reopening, because the Capital Region met the seven qualifications mandated by Gov. Andrew Cuomo for moving into Phase One of the NY Forward reopening plan. This initial step will allow industries, construction, and manufacturing to return to normal operation as well as the resumption of agricultural forestry, fishing, and hunting activities. This first phase also offers retail enterprises to conduct business with curbside or pickup of goods. Three other phases are to follow in two week intervals, if the seven health-related criteria continue to be met — if not, the state's lockdown orders are to be reinstated. May 18, Moore issued an email to area leaders stating that after the state reconciled data on COVID-19 hospitalization rates with regional health officials, the Capital Region had met the six reopening criteria of limited new infections, low hospital deaths and admissions, diagnostic testing ability, hospital and intensive care unit surge capacity and was within a day or so of meeting the final qualification of having enough trained contact tracers in place. "This is certainly the news we were hoping we'd be giving," he said. Business owners in the region were already looking towards delving back into their business activities. Phase Two of reopening allows professional services, real estate and retail activities to resume, and administrative support operations return to full staffing. Phase Three allows restaurants and food services operations to reopen, and Phase Four allows resumption of entertainment and arts venues as well as educational institutions to open. Through all the phases, prevailing social-distancing mandates must be observed. During the Lake George Village meeting held Monday morning via videoconference, the village board voted to temporarily suspend various local ordinances to allow local shops to prop their entrance doors open, set up tables next to their doorways for pickup of merchandise and take-out food, and to erect tents on their property — for outdoor dining when Phase Three kicks in — if setback limitations and other qualifications were met. Business owners participating in the virtual meeting hailed the ordinance suspensions and said they were eager to welcome back customers, when allowed.

Signup for our newsletter

Warren County reopening okayed

COMPANY

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

SUBMISSION FORMS

BEYOND THE NEWS