By Scott D. Johnston

For The Daily World

Late Tuesday afternoon, Ocean Shores Mayor Crystal Dingler changed from “required” to “strongly recommended” her earlier order that, beginning Wednesday, would have made widespread use of face masks mandatory for people in Ocean Shores “when they are interacting with others who are not members of their household in public and private spaces.”

The new order to local businesses and nonprofits, their customers and clients, also changes from required to strongly recommended and “when available,” sets of protocol for social distancing, cleanliness and sensitization.

Dingler told The Daily World that she was surprised and a bit disappointed by the push back she received on the order she issued April 29. In a statement that accompanied Tuesday’s revised order, she wrote:

“With great reluctance, I am modifying the order for our businesses to require face coverings be worn by staff and customers on business premises. It has become clear to me that despite the continuing dangers of COVID-19, our City is not ready to protect itself in this manner.

“I remain very concerned that with the many thousands of visitors we will have over the next few weeks and the businesses opening, we will see an outbreak of the disease. I urge our citizens to wear cloth face coverings in public buildings where they might come in contact with others and to educate their friends to do so as well.

“I also urge our citizens and visitors that if they do not feel comfortable with the precautions taken or not taken by a business, that they share their concerns in a reasoned manner with the clerk or owner. Also let them know what makes you feel better about being in their business.

“Finally, I believe that citizens and visitors alike will reward those that they believe are making the right decisions regarding employee and customer’ safety with their business.

“I am excited about the opening of our businesses but Stay Home, Stay Healthy remains in place, with over 200 new cases a day in our state. Be smart and support our local businesses. They have sacrificed much.”

The mayor expressed some of her concerns in a letter to local businesses Monday, writing about the challenges involving the coming reopenings.

“I … think that we need to be prepared for visitors with safety requirements that protect our population from the few who do not think they are vulnerable. Wearing masks and observing social distancing in our businesses seems like a small price to pay to ensure that our visitors, who virtually all come from areas more highly infected than ours, also wear masks and observe social distancing while here.”

She also noted that the state “has decided not to open any state parks on the coast yet; DNR has decided not to open Damon Point; and GH County and Pacific County decided not to open their beach approaches, leaving us in a position where we could not open ours either without funneling too many visitors onto our area beaches.” She issued an order last Thursday keeping the city’s drive-on beach approaches closed indefinitely.

Her letter noted that the Grays Harbor COVID-19 Policy Group will continue to closely monitor local capacity and readiness to respond to the increased transmission of COVID-19 that may occur if social distancing measures are relaxed. However, she wrote, “I do not believe that we need to actually relax social distancing measures, but instead should use them to ensure that we open safely.”

Gov. Jay Inslee’s framework for reopening normal activities is a phased in approach. Grays Harbor is one of 10 counties that could be considered for an accelerated start because of a relatively low incidence of COVID-19. Key county health officials have noted that they would expect orders restricting non-essential travel to remain in place.

Dingler said in a telephone interview that, as Ocean Shores starts to move slowly and cautiously toward reopening, the situation remains fluid. The next step comes as hotels and commercial lodging, which were not closed by the state or county but were shut down in Ocean Shores, may begin to reopen May 18.

Next Monday, May 11, the Ocean Shores City Council will likely take action on each of four recent executive orders. The council can individually ratify or reject each order, but cannot amend any order.