Riverside County bumped up to 'red' tier; County Supervisors opt to delay vote on separate reopening proposal

Riverside County has moved into the "red” tier of California’s economic reopening plan on the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, on the same day that County Supervisors voted to revisit a separate two-month reopening proposal in two weeks. 

Now that it is out of the most restrictive ``purple tier,” the following operations can resume: 

-Restaurants indoors (25% capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer)
-All retail indoors (50% capacity)
-Shopping centers indoors (50% capacity, closed common areas)
-Museums, zoos, and aquariums indoors (25% capacity)
-Places of worship indoors (25% capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer)
-Movie theaters indoors (25% capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer)
-Gyms and fitness centers indoors (10% capacity) 

Before the vote on Supervisor Jeff Hewitt’s proposal, the board heard from more than 100 people during a public comment session, and all but three of them voiced their support for the plan to reopen at a more rapid pace. 

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“It’s not about feelings, it’s about facts - we’ve got to get everything back open, we’ve got to continue on and we’ve got a whole generation to set an example for,” said construction company owner Julio Mederiras, construction company owner. 

The meeting lasted for more than 6 hours, as small business owners, parents, veterans and others shared the personal, professional, and psychological hardships they’ve experienced since the coronavirus shut down. After the public comment period, Supervisors discussed the pros and cons of moving forward with the proposal, ultimately deciding that it needed more thought.

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They voted to revisit the plan on October 6th. People who stayed for the duration of the meeting said that they were happy that the proposal is moving forward, but we’re disappointed that it wasn’t put in place today.

“They did no preparation for this at all, they wasted all of our time. I’m happy that they at least continued to move forward, but the two supervisors that voted no - shame on you,” said Menefee resident Reen Tee, who also gave input at the meeting.

“The thing that I’m really frustrated about is that we spent our day and our lives here and we had to leave and go to school and pick up kids...they didn’t give us credibility to do their homework prior to this - they knew what they were voting on today.”