Thank you Mayor Mays
Whank you, Mayor Mays! City of Sherwood's Mayor Mays, joined by the Mayors of Tualatin and Durham, sent a letter to the governor asking for an accelerated opening of Washington County.
Washington County is one of two counties that have not begun phase one of re-opening. You may have heard that the county applied on May 22nd; however, their goal is not to open until June 1st. For weeks, the county has said that they do not have enough contact tracers. When in fact, they have had as many as 40 contact tracers in place as early as May 11th, in time to apply for the first round of openings. (Based on guidance from the state, the county is required to have 27 contract tracers in place when they open with a plan to get to 90) By the county's own admission on their website, they had met all other conditions to re-open.
One in five workers is out of work in the state of Oregon. 400,000 people have applied for unemployment. 300,000 people were employed in Washington County before the pandemic, an estimated 60,000 of those workers are out of work right now. The citizens of Washington County have done their part. We have flattened the curve, reduced hospitalization rates to almost zero, and the percentage of positive tests continue to fall.
It's time for the County and the Governor to accelerate the opening.