Habersham County’s Board of Commissioners hashed out a two-week emergency resolution Saturday morning via conference call in an attempt to balance safety from the COVID-19 virus with allowing folks to continue doing business in the county.
The resolution calls for those who are able to shelter in place, especially in at-risk groups.
Read the entire resolution here.
The ordinance will continue to allow people who need food, medical care, or to get to work or care for a family member elsewhere to leave their homes to do so. The provision also allows for outdoor activity if it is properly adhered to social distance.
The commissioners declared that any businesses in the county’s unincorporated areas that could not adhere to the 10-person gathering rule with six feet of social distancing in place must close.
But they generally leaned on the side of allowing businesses to continue making money in any way they can, including allowing for the possibility of hair care and massage providers to offer those services at a residence if the parties agree.
Those businesses can continue to operate if they adhere to the rules of social distancing and do not violate the rule of 10 or more people in a gathering and they adhere to the rules of their state licenses.
Child care facilities are permitted to stay open provided they adhere to CDC guidelines.
Restaurants will still be permitted to offer drive-thru, takeout and curbside services.
Chairman Stacy Hall added that while the commissioners were trying to accommodate the local economy any way they could, “Sheltering at home is our civic duty to our neighbors.”
Commissioner Tim Stamey suggested a clause that discourages recreational visitors to the county from highly-infected areas with shelter-in-place directives in place, including but not limited to the Atlanta metro area. Many people from those areas have been coming to the mountains in recent weeks for recreation.
Read more about this and the developing COVID-19 crisis in the midweek edition of The Northeast Georgian.