Now what? (Life now that the Stay at Home order has been overturned)

“But according to the Code of the Order of the Brethren...”

“The code, Miss Turner, is more what you'd call 'guidelines' than actual rules.”

Captain Barbossa to Elizabeth Swan in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

On Wednesday night, May 13, an hour before the monthly city council meeting, the news went out that the Wisconsin Supreme Court had struck down Governor Ever's Safer at Home order essentially taking the teeth out of that dog's bite. The day before that our own sheriff Chris Fitzgerald had released a letter stating his intention to no longer enforce an order he considered unenforceable. So the question on everyone's mind is “Now what?”

Can restaurants and taverns open?

Can worshipers return to worshiping inside their sanctuary regularly instead of on-line?

And will there be a Memorial Day parade or Liberty Fest?

The day after the Supreme Court's ruling I happened to be hiking on the Ice Age Trail south of Stevens Point when I received a call from one of the owners of a local eatery wanting to know if they could open. They had been unsuccessful in reaching anyone at HHS and wanted to know if I had heard anything. While I hadn't I offered to reach out to Program Manager for Public Health Laura Sauve and she informed me that since the Safer at Home order had been struck down that there was no official order restraining them from opening. That being said she encouraged the owners to check in with Dave Armstrong at Barron County Economic Development in their preparations to open up their doors to make sure they were following recommended guidelines.

On Friday, Barron County Executive Jeff French made public Barron County COVID-19 Guidance for Community Members, Businesses, and Community Organizations. In a conversation I had with him prior to its release he wanted to emphasize that these were not rules per se with ramifications of enforcement but simply guidelines for people to reference. Unlike an armistice at the end of a war when people run out into the streets to celebrate, the threat of people becoming infected with the virus remains real. So the gist of what I got from Jeff is get back to living but do so responsibly.

So, can a restaurant or tavern open? Well, they already are so, yes. They are encouraged, however, to responsibly arrange their tables within their dining establishment, to offer hand sanitizer and encourage “social distancing”, that phrase that is now part of our daily parlance. So dine responsibly.

Can churches re-open? While the county's official position is to continue to discourage gatherings of 10 or more at this time they will defer to each congregation or denomination to determine under what conditions they reopen. Two local congregations “re-opened” this past Sunday and others will soon follow. I know definitively that no one from Chetek PD or Barron County will be issuing citations to any congregation that decides to gather in their building. My guess is all of us who have been on-line these past 8 weeks will remain on-line in the future as a service to those who feel uncomfortable participating in a large gathering right now or simply because we discovered that by being on-line creates another door to our ministry. Worship responsibly.

And what about graduation? The operations of our schools are governed by the Department of Public Instruction and what they say goes. I know that a few weeks ago C-WHS was working on a plan to hold a graduation ceremony on the football field but that idea got shot down by “the powers that be.” While I don't speak for the schools at this point I am not aware of any formal graduation plan for the graduates of the Class of 2020. I'm sure Superintendent Johnson and Principal Zeman will keep parents and students in the loop when their plan becomes do-able.

And what about Memorial Day observances and Liberty Fest? Again, while these beloved events occur within city limits they really are not run by the city. The American Legion oversees Memorial Day observances and the Chamber is responsible for Liberty Fest. Last week Robert Lund of the American Legion reached out to me wondering about the city's official position on parades to wit I replied that officially we have none. While I'm pretty sure there will be something going out on the bridge and then at the new Veteran's Memorial across from Lake View Cemetery this coming Monday, it definitely won't look like what we're used to. Observe responsibly.

Same goes for Liberty Fest. We lost the Fishy Four this year but that was the C-W Scholarship Foundation's call. It is their fundraiser after all. In my brief conversations with Chamber event coordinator Jennifer Blatz she remains certain that there will be fireworks and hopeful for a number of the other standard Liberty Fest events like the craft show, the car show and, of course, the parade. But again that is the Chamber's call.

The other night I thought I heard Governor Evers say on one of the nightly news programs that with the Supreme Court's ruling it was now the "Wild West" in Wisconsin as anything goes. I beg to differ. Before this all began our way of life ran for the most part on certain firm ground rules and a lot of common sense. There will always be that pull for more “rules and regulations” to govern how we do

things. But the minute you invent a rule a governing authority has to be ready to enforce that rule which comes back to Sheriff Fitzgerald's argument: there are simply not enough cops and deputies to enforce all the rules. Every restaurant and tavern owner wants customers in their establishment. Every pastor wishes for more people in their sanctuary. Trust them to do what must be done to make sure that eating, drinking and worshiping may be done in a safe and responsible manner. I think we're gonna be okay. But we'll know soon enough if my faith in common sense is well-placed – or not.

The parks are open and the playground equipment too. Same goes for the bathrooms there. You'll note a sign on the bathroom doors that indicates how often they are cleaned. They'll also be locked at night. You be the judge. If you're comfortable knowing that we cannot clean the bathrooms every four hours as HHS is recommending then you're welcome to use them. And if not, well don't – but please don't pee in the bushes instead!

A lot of us see things differently. Some think we should have never shut down. Others think we're rushing way too soon to get back open. And a lot of us find ourselves somewhere in between. Let's be nice to each other and be gracious to another as well as we all try to navigate these strange waters the best we can.