Grants Mayor Martin Hicks allowed his town to reopen for limited business on Monday, in direct defiance of the statewide order in place by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in response to the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...pandemic. He joined a few dozen supporters on Monday to rally in support of businesses in the city of about 9,000 people.
"The governor is killing the state over a little bug," Hicks said Monday, according to CBS News.
The Democrat mayor encouraged businesses to open their doors on Monday, opened the city’s only golf course and called Grants’ 100 employees back to work.
"Our governor is saying to you, you are going to die if you go back to work at city hall," Hicks declared at the gathering by city hall, KOAT-TV reported.
"You are going to die if you go back to your construction job, but it’s OK if you work at Walmart. You are not going to die if you work at Walmart. Just any other place you are going to die," he said, projecting a 33% loss of revenue in the western New Mexico town.
The state’s Democratic governor had criticized the plan by Hicks to reopen his town, saying it makes "absolutely no sense whatsoever" and warning that State Police would be on hand to continue to enforce her stay-at-home order through May 15.
New Mexico has seen more than 2,700 cases. About 150 people are hospitalized and 99 have died, according to state health officials. The highest number of cases in the state have been recorded just to the west of Grants in McKinley County.
All nonessential businesses in New Mexico were ordered to close and gatherings of over five people were banned by the governor’s order back in March. Hicks announced his plan to reopen Grants last week.
"On Monday... we are reopening Grants. Yes we are, we are going to follow the CDC guidelines. We are going to do the social distancing, but we will be open for business even though that is against the governor’s executive order,’ he said, according to KOAT.