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THURSDAY
The Voice of Seguin Today
Volume 55, Number 084
830-379-2234
Guadalupe County assisting businesses as they reopen By Cindy Aguirre-Herrera (Seguin) -- Guadalupe County is doing its part to make sure that businesses know exactly what it is going to take and what is required in reopening their operations this Friday.
have a couple of people in the office and what we are going to try to do is I’m going to send the guys out and we are going to go out there and start knocking on doors of businesses, calling people in our system even if they are not open letting them know what’s your 25 percent, what’s your 50 percent and what
a restaurant in Geronimo or anything like that – you don’t have any questions on a Saturday night, how many people you can have inside your facility or outside in your patio area – you have a piece of paper in your hand that says this many people. If you get to that point and you have a question, you can show it to
As soon as the governor gave the green light to pursue a slow opening of the state, Guadalupe County officials that next day began serving as a resource for the various retailers and operations in the county. As part of Governor Greg Abbott’s order, all retail businesses will be allowed to reopen, but they must limit occupancy to 25 percent under phase one. Should the state experience a downward trend of COVID-19 data, then phase two would allow 50 percent capacity at these businesses as well as the possible opening of other business currently not included in this phase one rollout. Patrick Pinder, Guadalupe County emergency management coordinator and fire marshal, says his office has steadily been working to make sure that all the fine details of the governor’s plan are understood and relayed to those hoping to do business. “So, if you are in the unincorporated area of the county and you have a question about your occupancy load, how many people you can have in your business or any questions, contact our office. I will send out my inspectors out to your facility and they will give you a count of how people you are allowed to have in your business. We only
Courtesy Photo your 75 percent is going to be because I see the governor -- 25 percent now, 50 percent on the 18th and he can impose a 75 percent or he may go to 100 percent but those business owners, instead of us going out multiple times, they’ll be able to understand and know what their occupancy load is for their facility so if you are a restaurant in Marion, if you are
somebody and say ‘look, this is how many people inside the restaurant.’ There won’t be any second guessing your decisions,” said Pinder. Guadalupe County Judge Kyle Kutscher says serving as a resource for local businesses is important in getting the community back on
its feet. “I think the intent of the fire marshals’ office to make contact is to be a resource, to try to give this information. There are enforcement measures laid out in the governor’s order and everything that he signed but again, the intent is to be a resource to businesses. Everybody is anxious and ready to get open. As the county, we want to help facilitate that and be somebody that the businesses can call up and ask for help. Hopefully, all the businesses and all the patrons out there understand that it’s a challenging time. We are trying to work through all of these modifications and changes on a daily and weekly basis but want to be here to support those businesses getting open. If you have any questions, please call the county. Please call Mr. Pinder’s office. We did have a conference call with all the mayors. Everybody was on there including New Braunfels to go over the governor’s order, some of the details in it, our expectations as the county and how we are going to make contact with businesses in the unincorporated area of the county and the mayors have their departments going through some of the same measures within the incorporated areas of each of the cities trying to make contact with some of the businesses just to push out as much information as possible so we can all be on the same page trying to get to the same goal,” said Kutscher. Kutscher says he applauds the governor’s words during his press conference earlier this week. He says in order to move to phase two, phase one must be rolled out safely and slowly. See REOPEN, page 3
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Shannon Wagner 830-832-4631