Mayor in Fort Worth suburb will open businesses when governor says it’s okay
Mayor Laura Hill was out feeding her cattle as calls came in from Southlake business owners asking if they should open.
Hill described how the phone calls started coming after Colleyville announced earlier this week that the city was letting some businesses, like salons and restaurants with patios, open while following guidelines for safety and social distancing.
Hill said she decided to record a video in response to the concerns from business owners about whether they should reopen.
Her first concern is safety, Hill said, and that the city was not going to go against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order.
“There are unintended consequences when one city decides to open up,” Hill said in an interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
There are some in Southlake who have businesses in Colleyville and people living in Colleyville with businesses in Southlake, she said.
“My feeling is that I owe a lot to my businesses. They have suffered a lot. I’m not going to tell them to open until the governor authorizes it,” she said.
Hill added that some businesses operate under state licensing guidelines, such as salons, and she did not want to put them in legal jeopardy.
“There is a right way to do this and a wrong way to do this… We can choose to be more restrictive than the governor’s order, but we cannot be lax,” Hill said.
Meanwhile, several Colleyville restaurants opened to diners who wanted to eat a meal on their patios, incluiding Rio Mambo and Costa Vida.
The servers wore masks, but many diners stood close together in the lines and did not wear masks.
Colleyville Mayor Richard Newton declined to comment about the businesses that were open, and told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in a text message that he would comment after Abbott’s press conference on Monday.
Newton said in a video posted on Colleyville’s Facebook page Friday afternoon that he was following Abbott’s order and that businesses and churches can decide whether they feel it is safe to open.
Newton also said he spoke to the attorney general’s office this week and that the conversation was “positive and mutually beneficial.”
“The office did not require any changes to my proclamation; we pledged to work together,” Newton said in his video.
Newton said his decision was based on data from Tarrant County showing there is a 50 percent availability of hospital beds and a University of Washington study showing that Texas reached the peak in the curve of coronavirus cases.
“It’s time to reopen our businesses that have been badly hurt,” Newton said.