Rural northeast Washington counties ask Inslee for special consideration on reopening come May 4

While Franklin County voted to reopen its economy early this week – and quickly backtracked after learning that wouldn’t fly with Gov. Jay Inslee’s office – elected leaders in Washington’s three rural northeast counties found consensus on a more measured approach.

Officials from Stevens, Ferry and Pend Oreille counties are asking the governor for special consideration to reopen more of the region’s economy sooner than other areas that have been hit harder by the COVID-19 pandemic. But they aren’t asking to begin that reopening process until May 4, the date Inslee’s stay-home order is set to expire.

And they say they’ll only move forward with plans that are in line with state law and supported by data.

“We can talk about approaches to this, but it all has to be done in a manner that is consistent with the state order,” said Matt Schanz, administrator of the Northeast Tri County Health District.

Stevens County has the most cases in the Northeast Tri County Health District – which covers a population of about 66,000 – with nine positive tests as of Friday. The first death in the region also occurred there on April 12.

Pend Oreille County has confirmed two cases, and Ferry County has reported one.

About 770 people in the counties have tested negative. And no one was hospitalized as of Friday.

“If you step back and look at Washington’s actions up front, that made a tremendous difference in terms of where we sit now,” Schanz said. “Now it’s just navigating our way forward through those next steps.”

Schanz and Northeast Tri County Health Officer Dr. Sam Artzis sent a letter to Inslee and state Health Secretary John Wiesman on Thursday saying local officials have the necessary capacity to conduct contact investigations for new cases and hospitalize people with serious illness at the current rate.

To reopen the local economy safely, the public health officials say they need more test kits and protective equipment to meet long-term demands for increased testing and be prepared in the event of a surge in patients.

“With this support, we believe it’s appropriate to release restrictions in a staged approach on May 4th, provided there continues to be a low disease prevalence within the area,” the letter to Inslee and Wiesman says. “Further, we believe this can be accomplished regionally if the same conditions don’t exist in other areas of the state.”

With a regional approach, the local officials acknowledged that it will be important to implement travel restrictions, shielding rural areas from travelers coming from cities with high rates of COVID-19.

Once businesses reopen in the county, Schanz said officials will still use data to drive decision making about precautionary measures, which could be put back into place if more people contract the novel coronavirus.

“We may need to take some actions and realize we need to slow things down in the future,” Schanz said.

Some leaders in the Northeast Tri County area have expressed discontent with Inslee’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order, such as Republic police Chief Loren Culp, who has called the governor a “would-be dictator” and said some restrictions seem arbitrary.

But Schanz said local elected leaders who sit on the health district board seem to be on the same page.

“I think the page that people want to be at is to do the right thing for the citizens and for businesses,” Schanz said. “There was consensus built around that idea that we need to take the appropriate steps, and there was support centered around looking at that data.”

Republic Mayor Elbert Koontz said he wants to see businesses in his area, such as the city’s three restaurants, open back up with “common sense” measures in place, like masks, social distancing and increased sanitation.

“They need to have businesses or they’re gone,” Koontz said. “They can’t take two months off.”

Leaders from the three northeast counties and the health board held two special meetings Friday, and Koontz said local mayors and county commissioners are also preparing a letter to Inslee.

The boards of commissioners for Ferry and Pend Oreille counties are scheduled to begin discussing phased measures for reopening during meetings early next week.

Ferry County Commissioner Johnna Exner, the chair of the local health district board, did not respond to interview requests.

“People need to understand it’s really serious,” Exner told The Spokesman-Review for an April 15 article. “Maybe the reality needs to sink in that it could happen here. So please, keep your distance.”

Koontz said the city of Republic and neighboring Pend Oreille County “are ripe to reopen,” but “you’ve got to have a measured response.”

“If you just opened everything up, where do you go from there?” Koontz said. “Just close everything down?”

“We don’t want anybody to die,” he continued. “We want to have some good direction.”