Burns successfully lobbies for Cambria to begin reopening
Legislator urged administration to reconsider red status given case numbers
Rep. Frank Burns May 8, 2020 | 4:26 PM
EBENSBURG, May 8 – A week after he called for the Wolf administration to reconsider its decision to exclude Cambria County from the ‘yellow’ status list for reopening, state Rep. Frank Burns, D-Cambria, today said that his lobbying has paid dividends – and Cambria will be moved for reopening.
“When Cambria County was excluded from the initial list, I was stunned, bewildered, a little betrayed. The people and business owners of Cambria County did our part – we socially distanced, we made the difficult decisions and sacrifices necessary to keep our case counts low, and yet we were still excluded -- all things that I pointed out to the administration,” Burns said. “I’m glad the governor and his team have listened to reason and are moving to allow Cambria to reopen for business.”
Under the yellow phase of reopening, life-sustaining businesses will continue to conduct their operations in-person, and many non-life sustaining businesses will be permitted to restart their in-person operations through the loosening of some restrictions under the stay-at-home and business closure orders.
“This is a decision that makes sense. Cambria County never saw the spike in cases that other counties a hundred miles or more away did,” Burns said. “We can balance public safety and the best interests of our communities. It’s not an either-or question, and it’s time for Cambria County to be given a chance to get back to work.”
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Burns has been working to inject common sense and data-driven decisions into the state’s response, and hasn’t backed down from asking the tough questions and standing up to the administration on behalf of the people of Cambria County.
Over the last week, Burns has demanded transparency on how decisions are made on which counties move into the yellow zone, voted to reopen garden centers, and pushed to allow all businesses to conduct curbside pickup or delivery, noting that if the state-owned liquor stores can do so safely, so can every other local business.
“Since the start of this crisis I have worked hard to put the people of Cambria County, and not politics or party first,” Burns said. “I was elected to be the voice of 62,000 people in Cambria County, to fight for them and their best interests, and that has always been my number one priority.”