Three Pennsylvania Counties Weigh Reopening Friday Despite Governor’s Threats

Pennsylvania counties are weighing the possibility of reopening on Friday despite Gov. Tom Wolf’s (D) threats.

Several county leaders across Pennsylvania have been in talks to defy the governor’s order and charge ahead with reopening without the governor’s permission. The discussions drew a pointed response from Wolf, who on Monday threatened both counties and business owners who would dare reopen in violation of his decrees.

“To those politicians who decide to cave in to this coronavirus, they need to understand the consequences of their cowardly act,” Wolf said, warning that he would withhold federal stimulus discretionary funding from counties operating outside of his orders.

He also said the state could revoke health department certificates, liquor licenses, and certificates of occupancy from businesses that follow suit.

Leaders of three counties — Lebanon, Beaver, and Lancaster — are weighing the possibility of forging ahead and reopening on Friday, alongside the 13 counties Wolf formally authorized to move from red to yellow.

Lebanon officials indicated on Monday that they were planning to move ahead, but the final vote to do so is scheduled for Friday. Commissioners in Lancaster and Beaver counties have also indicated that they support moving ahead, but according to PennLive, “it was still unclear whether they were going to take a formal action or, without that, what effect their statements would have”:

The last pockets of resistance Wednesday were in Lebanon and Lancaster, two south central counties that have new case rates still well in excess of the administration’s threshold for starting to reopen, and Beaver County on the Ohio line, which is the only county in western Pennsylvania that is not scheduled to move to yellow by Friday under the governor’s plan.

“To be effective, it has to be legal. We just can’t do things to defy,” Susquehanna County Commissioner Alan Hall said, according to Fox 56.

However, the threats did little to stop Columbia County officials, who passed a resolution to bring the county into the yellow phase of reopening, beginning on Friday.

“We don’t want to be rogue. We do not. But we’re also hearing the passionate pleas from our business community,”  Columbia County commissioner Chris Young said. “They’re saying, ‘I need to get back to work.'”

The resolution reads in part:

We trust our business owners and citizens to make the right decision for their individual circumstances. The Resolution we Commissioners passed today requires in no way for any “Non-Life-Sustaining” business to open its doors for business. Neither does our Resolution require our citizens to patronize such business. Rather, we Commissioners believe strongly that our businesses and citizens have the requisite common sense to determine what is best for themselves. This is not a mandate.

Commissioners also blasted Wolf over the potential of retaliation, adding that it would be “out of character” and “disrespectful to the great people of Columbia County” to rip licenses away from business owners.