Across Central New York, people are eager to get back to some sort of normal and for businesses to reopen. Leaders are working on the details of a restart.

“Hopefully the state will be comfortable with our planning process and they believe what we can do a restart on the 15th in a safe way,” Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said.  

McMahon and leaders from the six surrounding counties are working to get their region’s economy back up and running as soon as possible. The region already meets most of the state’s guidelines for reopening, McMahon said.

Perhaps the most important criteria is a declining number of coronavirus cases.

“If we were to look at our trend from our peak, we’ve had a downward trend,“ McMahon said.

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Other requirements include being able to test for and track the coronavirus. There are already about 50 people tracing the spread of the virus in Onondaga County, but the state says there needs to be about 140.

“We are going to cross-train existing county employees on tracing so we have that capacity and we can meet that mandate,” said McMahon.  

Regions must have facilities for COVID-19 patients who cannot isolate at home. Onondaga County checks that box, too.

“We’ve had people in the community at times that need to be in a quarantine and maybe their housing isn’t stable,” said McMahon. “We deal with that, so we have partners in the community already that are doing that exact same purpose.”

The last question is what reopens first? State guidelines say low-risk construction and manufacturing facilities will be part of phase one. McMahon wants to add car dealerships by appointment only.

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“In a big showroom, probably a room as big as this, if you have a one on one appointment, there’s a way to stay six feet apart,” said McMahon. “It’s a big part of the economy and it will bring people back to work.”

Car sales are the top generators of sales tax for the county, McMahon said. So selling cars means more revenue, therefore the county will have more money to fight the virus.