Nevada County reopening rally calls for ‘immediate’ end to coronavirus restrictions
Business owners and community members in Nevada County plan to hold a rally at noon Friday, calling for the speedier reopening of the local economy in protest of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s statewide stay-at-home order.
It’s not the first effort organized by a Facebook page titled “ReOpen Nevada County,” which was created in early May and has reached a following of more than 550 users as of Friday morning. The demonstration is planned to last two hours in the parking lot at Grass Valley City Hall, after previous rallies took place outside county Board of Supervisors meetings.
“We have a handful of local business owners sharing their Covid shutdown stories,” the event description reads. “This will be a peaceful, family friendly, fun event supporting ALL our businesses, schools, religious and events centers to be treated equally and open now. Before and afterwards, we encourage you to patronize the local businesses in downtown Grass Valley and throughout the County.”
The “ReOpen” social media page has been critical of Newsom as well as county supervisors, with page admin Kimberly Farwell and commenters demanding the immediate, full opening of what the governor’s office has called Phase 3 businesses — personal services like salons and barbershops that require close contact between people, and others seen as involving a higher risk of virus transmission, such as fitness centers and movie theaters.
“Our rights have been trampled on in the last eight weeks,” Farwell wrote in a very long post claiming that the county’s five-member board of supervisors and county Public Health Officer Dr. Ken Cutler have suspended First Amendment rights with the county stay-at-home order.
The criticism and calls for county officials to take action persist, even though the county-level order was rescinded and allowed to expire two weeks ago. Nevada County now defers to the governor’s statewide order, which continues to prohibit Phase 3 businesses in any county from reopening, according to its public health website.
Event organizers could not be immediately reached for comment.
Farwell, whose LinkedIn page says she is a bookkeeper and small business consultant, wrote that Nevada County is “on the brink of collapse” due to the statewide shutdown, which was issued by Newsom on March 19 in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, and its impact on local businesses.
The Greater Grass Valley Chamber of Commerce and its 11-member board of directors initially wrote in support and endorsement of Friday’s rally.
Then, in a Facebook post late Thursday night, the chamber announced it had rescinded its support.
The chamber wrote that it had previously believed that the city allowing the parking lot to be used as a gathering space indicated support for the event by the city and Nevada County, but that this does not appear to be the case.
“Regretfully, and with our heartfelt apologies, we viewed this as the County of Nevada and the City of Grass Valley supporting the event, and thus, we gave the Friday event our support as well.
“We wholeheartedly agree with your outpouring of concern about public safety and hope that anyone who may attend follows the CDC and Nevada County Health protocols. Also, earlier this evening we learned that our supervisors will not be speaking. To that end, the board of directors has reversed our position and we rescind our support of this event.”
The chamber also encouraged community members participating in the rally to do so safely.
“ALL businesses are essential! Our intention is to coordinate action that supports business openings,” the ReOpen page’s Facebook description reads.
The “ReOpen” group has pointed to Nevada County’s Covid-19 death toll, of just one, and the state’s more than 3,000 deaths as evidence that there has “not yet been an ‘epidemic’ in California.”
This story was originally published May 22, 2020 at 10:50 AM.
