By Linda Kor While the state moves towards a gradual reopening of services amid COVID-19 concerns, the Town of Taylor addressed concerns regarding whether or not to host its annual Fourth of July Rodeo. During a council meeting last Thursday, Mayor David Smith initially suggested holding a special meeting after Gov. Doug Ducey announced how the state will be opening up on May 15, but the council decided to move forward with the event and change plans if needed. The concern for the council was on the economic impact with little apparent concern or even belief in the number of cases that continue to rise, if not in Taylor, in the rest of Navajo County and the country. Councilman Shawn Palmer stated, “We’ve got to look at what’s real and what’s not real. There’s a strong opinion that says enough is enough. There’s a strong opinion that calls it, in pretty strong language, not being as real as it’s being promoted. Then there’s another opinion of if we don’t get completely over it, whatever ‘it’ is, then it will just prolong it and it will spread.” Palmer, who is not a physician or immunologist, went on to explain that he’s done extensive research on the matter and that one of the worst things that can be done is stay home. “Another thing is one of the worst things you can do is wear a mask. The way virus works, your body is getting rid of something that it doesn’t need. It’s not live and you breathe that into your mask and you inhale it back into your system.” Palmer continued, “I feel very strongly that we do our best not to be bullied. I feel very strongly that it’s very obvious, I’m going to call it, an alternative agenda. I would be in support of doing our best to get back to reality.” Smith agreed and said he also knew that there would be others with very strong opinions for the opposite. “On the other hand, I feel it’s hard for people to give us the respect we deserve if we don’t give the same respect to our governor and our national leaders. And if our governor says hold off for a while, I feel like we ought to follow suit and hold off for a while. We’re still two months away, so I’m all for reviewing this next month.” Hatch expressed concern with having enough help for the event and notifying families. “I’ve got people calling me every week wanting to know if we’re going to have it because they want to tell their families whether to come or not. I’m still kind of in a bind sending out assignments to the churches, to the wards. If they don’t support us in this, who are we going to get to take tickets? How are we going to run the parking? The (LDS) church has kind of shied away from anything to do with this. That puts us in a bind with our patriotic program if the buildings aren’t open by then. We have a speaker coming, should we cancel that? He’s coming from Hawaii.” Lundberg stated concerns regarding expenses as far as paying out prize money. “Is there a way to make some modifications? I know there’s added money from the gate money and that contestants do put in money that’s paid out but I know that there’s money on top of that that’s paid out and could that possibly be reduced… if the gate money is not there?” Vice Mayor Jason Brubaker suggested reducing the entertainment to save costs and reducing the stand capacity by 60 percent with online only ticket sales for the limited capacity. Palmer said he would not be in support of a 60 percent capacity or even 70 or 80 percent. “I would be in support of 110 percent capacity,” he said. Lundberg stated that if there are no restrictions, then moving forward should not be a problem but that considerations as far away as the Fourth of July have not yet been addressed by the governor, making it difficult to determine what restrictions may be in place. “Somebody’s going to panic when they hear how many people we’re going to have there; in the government, in the state, someone is going to panic when they hear that,” said Hatch. Councilwoman Sherry Cosper stated in her opinion, “Our area has not been bad at all and our state hasn’t been bad. I think we have suffered through the virus; we’ve done good. I think that what we’re dealing with now are emotions from people and our economy.” While Snowflake-Taylor has had less than five cases, Navajo County is currently ranked third in the state for COVID-19 cases and 23rd in the country per capita with cases continuing to rise. The Navajo Nation has reported a total of 13,426 cases across the entire nation, with 96 deaths as noted by Hatch who stated, “The reservation’s been hit pretty hard.” Cosper sounded doubtful as she replied, “So we think,” with Smith joking, “They were all at Walmart today.” Brubaker interjected stating, “If we haven’t been able to stop this spread of it, we’re not going to be able to make it go away. We learn to live with it in a way that we can have a normalcy in our economy, in our social interactions with others, in the work that we get to perform. I’m impressed with our governor’s proclamation that one of our duties is to inform people of the negative effects of social isolation. Never has it been for us to isolate. It’s not ‘shut down everything.’ Palmer recommended to go ahead with the event and forgo a meeting following the governor’s announcement. “If they shut us down, they shut us down. What’s the difference?” The council agreed and moved to proceed with Fourth of July festivities as planned, with Brubaker voting in opposition, expressing concerns that such action would allow the events to proceed without any consideration towards improvising as needed to accommodate the governor’s recommendations.
