Supervisor Tom Patti — who successfully lead the effort to allow San Joaquin County’s 10 golf courses to reopen — is working to get boat ramps accessing the Delta to open in the next few days.
Most golf courses opened Friday. A decision whether to open the Manteca Municipal Golf Course will be made by city leaders early next week.
Patti for two weeks worked with representatives of various public and private courses to draft proposed regulations from discontinuing club rentals and restricting golf carts to one person unless it is a member of the same household to cleaning on-course restrooms that are open on an hourly basis while propping open entrance doors. The list also includes items such as extending tee times with players waiting in cars before tee time and closing all indoor facilities, locker rooms, public seating, and practice putting greens.
The draft was presented to San Joaquin County Health Department Public Health Director Dr. Maggie Park who reviewed it, added additional requirements and determined courses could safely reopen if they follow the established protocols. The 51 rules that courses must follow to be able to reopen are designed to protect the health of employees and golfers.
“The goal was to do the leg work to get the discovery of what golf courses are dealing with so Dr. Park could take it from there,” Patti said.
The reopening of the courses will allow 400 people to get back to work.
Patti represents Manteca north of Yosemite Avenue, Lathrop, and parts of Stockton.
Patti praised Park for being “meticulous” and for taking steps that have helped reduce the potential carnage from COVID-19.
The supervisor said he is now working to get boat ramps such as at Mossdale in Lathrop and other county parks open even though the county earlier this week extended the closure to May 31.
He is also working with the Manteca Chamber of Commerce to arrange an outdoor assembly with proper social distancing of local business owners at a destination yet to be determined on Thursday at 10 a.m. The goal would be to work on rules that would allow the re-opening of small retailers and local services.
“It’s not fair that someone can purchase a lamp at Target but a small business owner selling lamps isn’t allowed to open up to customers,” Patti said.
The decision to re-opens rests with Park who is using guidance from the state as well as weighing the COVID-19 situation in the county. Patti said he sees his role as representing the community equation helping speed up the re-opening process by doing leg work gathering information on what business are dealing with in terms of social distancing and other precautions that vary among the various services and type of retail stores.
On Friday Park also established rules that would allow faith-based organizations to conduct services in a drive-in fashion. She also is allowing serious buyers of resale homes that have provided verification of funds or lender prequalification to view a house in-person before the current resident has moved out. In-person showings must be by appointment with no more than two visitors at a time from the same household and one individual showing the property.
Park also offered additional guidance to landscapers, yard services, arborists and gardeners that had been allowed to continue to operate before. Among the new guidance is shared equipment must be cleaned every time it is used by a different worker as well as crew members that are not from the same household must not travel in the same vehicle.
As of 5 p.m. Friday, there have been 495 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the county including 24 deaths.
Deaths are now at 1,618 for the state with 41,338 confirmed cases. The national death toll stands at 48,882 with 865,585 confirmed cases.
Thirteen more Manteca residents have the COVID-19 virus than a week ago. The additional cases in the seven days ending at 5 p.m. Friday means there are now 66 confirmed cases in Manteca with at least one death. There were 11 new cases the previous week.
There were 63 more cases in Stockton to bring the total in that city to 256. Tracy added 14 new cases to put that city’s count at 80. Lathrop added five new cases to reach 26 while Lodi is up 13 to 37. Ripon went from none reported a week ago to six confirmed cases. Escalon remains at five confirmed cases
Hispanics represented 43.4 percent of the overall total with 188 cases. Next are whites at 24.5 percent or 106 cases. After that 19.4 percent or 84 are Asian. Thirty-four or 7.9 percent are blacks. After that eight are Pacific islanders or native Hawaiians, 12 other or multiracial, and one Native American.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
