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The @Town_of_Prosper has now released a stay at home order. Let's go through the ordinance and unpack it. THREAD:
@EagleNationNews @ENO_PHS
@EagleNationNews @ENO_PHS
Everything here is all standard introductory stuff but the reactions from Greg Abbott and Judge Hill have been interesting. Texas is technically under a stay at home order, but Abbott doesn't like to call it that.
Judge Hill's order for Collin County was really lenient as it considered all businesses "essential" and thus allowed any business to stay open if it wanted to. McKinney issued a stricter order, but it was challenged in court after a McKinney realtor argued it was inconsistent...
...with the county order. McKinney's order was ultimately upheld. Shortly after, Abbott issued a new order, and shortly after, Judge Hill repealed his order.
The state of disaster remains in place until April 30. At which point Prosper's town council will have to decide what to do.
All Town events are suspended until April 30. The community library, rec center, sports fields, playgrounds, etc are all closed until April 30. The Municipal Court is delaying all proceedings until the beginning of may. All other offices are operating on normal hours.
There it is. All residents are ordered to stay at home. If you exercise outdoors, you have to stay at least 6 feet away from others.
ALL gatherings, public or private, of ANY people, occurring "outside of a single household or living unit" are banned. Nothing prevents members of a household or living unit from gathering, however.
All non-essential businesses must close. Working from home is allowed. All non-essential businesses must comply with social distancing of at least 6 feet "to the greatest extent possible"
While technically not listed as essential, restaurants, bars, microbreweries, microdistilleries, and wineries are allowed to stay open but can only offer drive-through, take-out, or delivery services.
Referencing the governor's executive order, places of worship are allowed to stay open only if they cannot provide online or from-home service. They must also enforce social distancing. Funerals are allowed to occur with appropriate social distancing.
The idea that churches should stay open, which comes from Governor Abbott, has been a controversial one. Some counties and cities, such as Dallas County, and the city of Granbury, have explicitly prohibited in-person worship services.
My question is: The order explicitly states that places of worship should only hold in-person services if they cannot provide from-home or online services. Will Prosper enforce that places of worship have to at least try to hold online services? Probably not.
What's also interesting is that the case can be made that it's very difficult to prove that it's not possible to hold online services, especially since Facebook live and the YouTube App make it possible to livestream from your phone with one or two taps.
Anyways, all "elective" (non-essential) medical, dental, and surgical services are prohibited within prosper, but the ordinance leaves it up to those offices to determine what is "elective"
"Essential activities" that you can leave the home for include, but are not limited to going out for exercise, going to the supermarket/grocery store to get supplies (or to deliver them to others), performing work for "essential businesses", or to care for others.
Keep your distance on those "essential activities", of course.
"Essential businesses" are: essential healthcare operations, essential government functions, education, critical infrastructure, essential retail, providing necessities to the poor, essential town services, auto sales, news media, and childcare.
"Essential Retail" in particular, includes grocery stores, warehouse/big-box stores, liquor stores, gas stations, convenience stores, farmers markets, farming, hunting, fishing, livestock, auto-supply, auto and bike repair shops, construction supply stores, and hardware stores.
Any business not included in that list but supplies products "needed for people to work from home" are also allowed to remain open.
If a business retools a significant part of itself to manufacture ventilators, than it can apply with the city to be considered a "essential business". That's nice!
All delivery hour restrictions are lifted, mainly so that stores can get the supplies they need.
Retailers must use "common-sense" rationing on household products and groceries in high demand.
If someone in a household tests positive, all members of the household must self-isolate until cleared by a medical professional.
All non-essential nursing home visits are banned.
The town gets some emergency powers, including the ability to quarantine people or to regulate hospitals. The ordinance also allows the town to use "all lawfully available enforcement tools"
Should any section of the ordinance be found unconstitutional, the rest of the ordinance will remain in effect.
Finally, anyone or any business that violates the ordinance will either be fined up to $1,000, or will be put in jail for up to 180 days. "and each and every day such violation shall continue shall be deemed to constitute a separate offense."
Phew! That's a lot. Thanks for reading this thread of mine. The full text of the ordinance can be found here: https://www.prospertx.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Ord.-No.-2020-26-Declaration-of-Local-Disaster-2.pdf
