I've been approached about issuing a "shelter-in-place" order for Cedar Falls, or working with the County for a county-wide shelter-in-place order. Here's my thinking on it....
The attached link goes to Wisconsin's statewide "Safer at Home" (i.e. shelter-in-place) emergency order, which went into effect yesterday morning for 30 days. In reading through it carefully, Iowa has already implemented the same provisions as WI through Governor's Proclamations, except that WI also banned the use of playgrounds (and we've done the same in Cedar Falls).
The Wisconsin provision also states that only essential businesses will be open, but that's a VERY wide net...including places like Menards, Wal-Mart, gas stations, all grocery stores, nearly all construction, banks, etc. etc. And in the Wisconsin shelter-in-place order, people are still encouraged to use parks and trails while practicing social distancing. We're already doing that, too.
So at this point, I'm not seeing that a shelter-in-place order really adds value yet. Once we DO get to that point, whether at the county or state level, I expect we'd be looking at very strict enforcement, and highly restricted movements... something looking very much like martial law. If/when we get to that point, I'm prepared to enforce it.
In the meantime, DO stay at home as much as humanly possible. Ask your employer for a work-at-home option if that's available; limit your movements to essential actions only in the coming weeks.
And prepare yourselves (and your families) for that shelter-in-place order, whether from the state or county. It may come sooner rather than later.
Very respectfully,
Mayor Rob Green