Relying heavily on the advice of Attorney Kim Merchant, on Monday night the Indianola city lawmakers discussed how they should move forward with regard to the city's active emergency proclamation and voted unanimously to "mirror" Gov. Tate Reeves' latest executive order with a few minor adjustments.
The revised proclamation still requires businesses to close by 10 p.m., maintain aggressive hygiene practices and service customers at no more than 50 percent of a store's capacity. However, some discussion was raised with regard to putting an actual numerical limit on larger retail operations.
The purpose of revisiting the city's proclamation was to determine if changes needed to be made that follow the guidelines of the governor or if tighter restrictions needed to stay in place. "You know better than anyone what is happening in your actual area," Merchant said.
Merchant informed the city leaders that Mayor Steve Rosenthal had raised some concerns over the recent reported number of customers at the local Walmart store.
"I've been told that Saturday before last and the Saturday before that, they had between 700 and 800 people in the store at any given time and the store is not even sterilizing the carts any longer," Rosenthal said.
He surmised that 800 customers would even be above Walmart's pre-COVID-19 capacity based on the estimated square footage of the store.
Rosenthal mentioned measures implemented in surrounding cities and proposed making similar restrictions.
Fire Chief Orlando Battle said that based on a square footage of 125,000 square feet, the state fire marshal requires that the occupancy at any one time not exceed 208 people.
There was some question about the exact square footage of the Indianola store and Battle was instructed to find out the correct number so that the store's capacity could be determined.
The city leaders agreed that the store and no other stores of its size should have more than 150 customers inside at any given time and agreed that no retail establishments should exceed the 50 percent limit in order to comply with social distancing protocols.
Merchant suggested wording the proclamation so that it states, "All businesses are to maintain a 50 percent capacity based on the governor's executive order."
She asserted that if there were specific businesses that needed to be targeted, that could be done through individual letters to the businesses once the fire chief has established the square footage for that particular business.
Alderman Sam Brock asked if the stores could be required to furnish masks and make their customers wear them while in the store.
Rosenthal said the city could only recommend but could not mandate it.
The revised order does state that retail businesses are to conduct frequent cleaning of high-contact sources including counters, door handles and credit card machines.
It also encourages the businesses to make hand sanitizer available to their customers upon entering the stores.
In addition, the 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew also remains in effect.
