Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert announced Friday that city parks and dog parks will reopen on Saturday morning.
Stothert says city parks will reopen with restricted the hours of 5 AM to 8 PM. Although parks will reopen, Stothert says playgrounds and athletic fields will remain closed to the public. "I am pleading with parents as playgrounds will remain closed." The mayor says playground equipment will stay closed because disinfecting it constantly is not possible.
Stothert says the 10-person rule still applies to any group at the parks. "What we don't want, like last time, is big groups of people. Our parks are big enough for people to spread out to follow the six-foot rule. Please be careful, we want you to enjoy the outside and be safe."
Regarding the 15 city pools and 11 splash grounds, they will tentatively reopen July 15th. If statewide rules change before that concerning social distancing and the 10-person limit, the date may change, as well. "We want to open our pools and splash grounds, but it won't be June 1st," Stothert said.
When schools will reopen is still unclear, Stothert said. Some officials she has spoken with have considered classes resuming mid-September.
Douglas County Health Director Dr. Adi Pour reported there are now 376 positive cases in Douglas County of COVID-19 and 14 deaths. She says every person who has died of the disease in Douglas County had comorbidities or underlying health conditions.
"We have a positivity rate of 9.3 percent, and we have 6.8 cases per 10,000 citizens," Pour explained. Earlier this week testing was opened up so physicians could order tests for non-priority persons. This meant an increase in cases, she said.
In Douglas County, 22% of cases are African-American, 14% are Hispanic and 8% are Asian, Pour said.
"As of today, we have 553 beds available with an occupancy rate of 59 percent and 42 COVID-19 patients," she said. "We have a total of 352 ventilators. We used to have 400 but we sent some to western Nebraska because they needed them. 15 are being used for COVID patients."
As Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts announced changes in the state's directed health measures to begin May 4, Pour said steps will be taken on how Douglas County moves forward. "Two things are going to stay the same: social distancing is still one of the areas where we don't back off. And 10 person rule in gathering. We will change that in some incidents but there is still the 10 person rule."
"It is still best and safest to be home," Pour said about those in the vulnerable population like the elderly or those with underlying health conditions. She also said she would like to see everyone wearing masks.
"I expect more cases as we do more testing in the next two weeks," she said. When asked if she is concerned about the changes to the directed health measures statewide, Pour replied she would ask every resident to go on with life while still following guidelines like wearing masks and social distancing.
"It's a personal determination on what to risk at this time," she added.
Pour was asked if she was governor, would she be making the same decisions that Ricketts has concerning the pandemic. "I don't know. I'm not a governor, I'm just a public health director."
Stothert said the City of Omaha's general fund budget of $420 million for 2020 will suffer about an $80 million loss. The all-fund budget which includes items like bond issue payments is $1 billion total and will suffer about $127 million in losses.
"Our budget is balanced by the penny at the first of the year. Raising taxes is the last thing I want to do ever, but in this situation, it's not an option," Stothert said. "Our other option is to reduce spending, which is what we have already started to do."
While the CARES Act has provided money to alleviate communities of COVID-19 related expenses, there are no such monies for loss of revenue because of canceled events like the College World Series. "We still don't have answers on if Omaha will get reimbursement for the COVID-related expenses," she said. "But we did an analysis and we figure it's about $14 million through the end of the year."
About 75% of Omaha's general fund goes to pay for police, firefighters and sanitation workers, Stothert explained. The last thing she wants is to reduce the number of first responders. "We need them more than we ever have before," she said.
Stothert said she has seen "compliance burnout" at big boxstores and other areas as people seem to be abandoning social distancing measures. "You can tell people are getting more restless. There are protests across the nation in states and cities with restrictions stronger than we do," she said. "Health and safety is number one, but we need to move forward a little bit, keep looking at the data."