By Dave Maxwell
MCIN
A recent story in the Independent-News stated that some rural counties were not obeying the governor’s emergency lockdown restrictions.
A similar story in the Las Vegas Review Journal last week said that Lyon, Nye. White Pine and Elko counties had decided to not follow Governor Steve Sisolak’s order in March 2020, to continue imposing COVID-19 restrictions on local businesses.
The article stated, “Some rural Nevada governments have adopted one of the left’s favorite tactics to fight coronavirus restrictions. They’ve essentially declared themselves “sanctuary” counties.”
Gov. Steve Sisolak’s pandemic edict had been to limit businesses throughout the state. “The most vocal opposition is now coming from a handful of rural counties,” the article said.
However, these counties were not the not first in the state to do something like this, Lincoln County, for example, took similar action almost a year ago.
While Mineral County did not issue a formal complaint about the restrictions put on by the state, they certainly will not oppose easing of them either.
As noted in the RJ article referring to recent actions by Lyon, White Pine, Elko and Nye counties, “Unsurprisingly, Gov. Sisolak and Attorney General Aaron Ford aren’t happy. “Resolutions like this are mere statements and nothing more,” they said in a joint statement. “They have no force of law and cannot override the governor’s emergency directives.”
But some businesses did.
Now, almost a year later, governor Sisolak has eased some of the restrictions that have been in place. He said in his Feb. 11 news conference he “hopes to transfer many virus decisions to local authorities by May 1.” That will be good news for rural counties, Lincoln County included, and it remains to be seen what local business in the counties will do.
