'We're Ready To Go', Miami Lakes Mayor Wants Permission To Open Non-Essential Businesses
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - The Miami Lakes Town Council unanimously passed a resolution on Thursday requesting it be allowed to start phased re-opening of non-essential businesses.
The resolution was sent to Governor Ron DeSantis, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, and the Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners. It requests the Town of Miami Lakes be allowed to begin phased re-opening of non-essential businesses on May 4.
The town argues it has seen very few cases of COVID-19 and has effectively flattened the curve.
On Wednesday, Governor Ron Desantis announced a phased re-opening across the state beginning on Monday. The executive order signed by the Governor excludes hard-hit South Florida, including Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.
Hours before the Governor's announcement, Miami Lakes announced a decline in cases across the town at a press conference surrounding some parks re-opening.
"At the height of the curve, we were experiencing 1 to 2 new cases a day, now we have 1 to 2 cases a week," said Miami Lakes Town Manager Edward Pidermann.
Many businesses support the town's decision.
"We furloughed a lot of employees, well over 100 employees for us," said Tom Valentin, the vice president of food and beverage at Shula's Hotel and Golf Club.
His restaurants, like so many others in South Florida, are operating as take out only.
"Living off of take out business, okay you can do that for a couple of weeks, maybe you can do that for a few weeks, but after that, it's really shutting the place down and it's been very very difficult," said Valentin.
The Don Shula Hotel on Main Street is surrounded by other shops in the same boat. Many with signs on their doors saying closed until further notice.
Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid thinks it's time for his town to start opening back up.
"We're ready to go," he said. "When the governor is reopening on Monday, they took out Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Broward counties. For us, that's a major issue, we want to make sure that we start re-opening our businesses."
Cid said restaurants and shops in his town have already developed safety plans to get people back to work, now they just need the go-ahead.
"The unemployment rate in our area, it is the highest in the nation, that is something, we have to help people, this is a time we got to come together," he said.
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"We're all anxious, we want to get back to work, but we want to be safe and we want to be safe for the public," said Valentin.
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