Independence re-establishes its own health department, then loosens a COVID rule
Days after Independence announced it had re-established its health department, the city said it was loosening one of its coronavirus-related business restrictions.
Restaurants and bars, starting Friday, may serve food and drink until midnight. Previously, Independence had followed Jackson County’s order that restaurants and bars close at 10 p.m. in an attempt to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Occupancy is still limited to 50% and masks are required of those not actively eating or drinking.
“We just really felt that it was causing more harm to their ability to remain a viable business by closing them at 10 o’clock when we feel like our business owners can manage that situation until midnight,” said Independence Mayor Eileen Weir.
Kansas City requires bars and restaurants to close at 10 p.m., but Johnson County in Kansas permits them to stay open until midnight.
Independence businesses that violate the new restrictions may have a curfew imposed on them; repeat offenders can lose utility service.
Public gatherings of 10 or more people must submit a protocol to the city at least seven days in advance. Masks and social distancing are still required for publicly accessible businesses.
The coronavirus pandemic has killed 192 people in Jackson County, not counting Kansas City.
On Monday, Independence announced it had re-established its municipal health department, two years after it re-organized the department and scaled back its services to save money and relied then on the Jackson County Health Department.
“None of us saw a health emergency of this scale on the horizon in 2018, but we have learned that we need more resources in our area to support the citizens we serve,” Weir said in a statement Monday.
Christina Heinen was named acting health director of the health department.
Independence City Manager Zach Walker said the city reorganized its health department two years ago because its services often duplicated those provided by the county a few blocks away.
“That was working as planned up until the unfolding of the COVID pandemic in March,” he said.
Since the pandemic, city leaders have been working on re-establishing that function locally. But Walker said the city will still work closely with the county department.
“This was not a coup against the county, but rather Independence trying to manage its response to the pandemic,” he said. “We’re not looking to get into competition with the county.”
Independence staff will start working on quarantine and contact tracing measures, but will still rely on the county through the end of the current fiscal year. In the next fiscal year, the city’s designation as a local public health agency will make it eligible for state funding.
“We’re not going to prop up a health department overnight,” he said.
In recent months, two council members have introduced legislation seeking to challenge Jackson County’s health regulations, saying they are hurting small businesses. Though they introduced the idea three separate times, it never won enough votes to succeed.
Walker said the council largely supports balancing public health interests with those of local businesses. Aside from allowing bars and restaurants to stay open two hours later, the city manager said he doesn’t expect Independence to significantly change its health restrictions further.
“Independence is a retail sales-tax-based community. That has been our economic engine for years,” Walker said. “The council was hearing a lot of feedback from small business owners, restaurateurs, and bar and tavern owners that those extra hours were meaningful to them in being able to bolster their profits.”
This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 4:37 PM.
