The Columbus City Council voted unanimously to rescind the town’s COVID-19 masks mandate on Monday night, after a metropolis well being official confirmed that the danger degree to the neighborhood continued to drop over the past week.
Mayor Andrew J. Ginther broke from the norm and signed the emergency measure instantly — sometimes his signature comes no sooner than the subsequent day on most ordinances, if not later — that means that the masking requirement for indoor public locations like shops, eating places and theaters was repealed early Monday night.
“What we have gone through collectively over the last two years has been difficult,” Council President Shannon Hardin stated. “What we have asked of you has been difficult.
“But since you knew what it meant for the individual sitting subsequent to you — the aged individual, the grandmother, the aunt with that compromising immune system, for that younger boy who joined us at council after we instituted this masks mandate in September who had simply acquired over most cancers, 5 or 6 years outdated — as a result of you considered him, you probably did it.”
But under orders from the federal Transportation Security Administration, mask are still required on all COTA vehicles until at least March 18, when it is set to expire, COTA said in a statement. And that order goes beyond just public transit vehicles, applying to all airplanes, trains, rideshare services and other public transportation operations.
Edward Johnson, the director of public health policy for Columbus Public Health, said that the county Monday was still in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new “medium” risk category, with about 57 cases per 100,000 residents, a hospital admissions rate is 10.4 per 100,000, and the number of inpatient beds occupied by COVID patients at 3.5%. The “positivity fee” is 2.95%.
“These are fantastic numbers,” Johnson said. “We are on the cusp of descending all the way down to the ‘low’ class.”
In other business Monday, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine raging on, the council approved a $100,000 grant to help a local organization build new capacity for settling new refugees in Columbus.
The images from Ukraine of families leaving behind all that they own to flee a war zone “is actually only a reminder that that’s so many people’ tales,” Hardin stated.
The grant will go to US Together and Community Refugee and Immigration Services, a Columbus-based nonprofit group founded in 2003. The money will help the agency boost its support capabilities for resettling immigrants and refugees by providing education, advocacy, referrals, and networking opportunities.
“For over a century the town of Columbus has been a metropolis that has welcomed immigrants and refugees,” said Lourdes Barroso de Padilla, the newly seated council member who chairs the Neighborhoods and Immigrant, Refugee and Migrant Affairs Committee. “Those who’ve needed to flee poverty, struggle, corruption or oppression have discovered a house right here in Columbus.”
That is due in large part to city’s resettlement organizations, who work in conjunction with the federal government to assist newly arrived refugees, Barroso de Padilla said.
“We are so lucky to stay in a metropolis with resettlement businesses who work tirelessly to welcome heroes and survivors from around the globe, together with most just lately these from Ukraine,” said member Emmanuel Remy.
“Those which might be on their journey at this time due to the oppression and the violence created by a ruthless dictator in Russia which may be coming towards the United States and towards Columbus, they are going to be welcomed with open arms, and the assist shall be there for them,” Remy said.
Also Monday, the council approved a series of 75%, 10-year property-tax breaks for five new industrial buildings planned for construction between this year and 2028 by a subsidiary of Atlanta-based TPA Group, a private real estate investment and development company.
The buildings would create 232 new jobs and $241 million in capital investment on the Far West Side, north of New Rome, according to a written council statement.
Jeb Brees, in charge of strategy and operations for TPA, said the initial plan is for construction on two buildings to begin in May. One is a 550,000-square-foot distribution center and the other a 300,000-square-foot freezer/cooler building, a total investment of just over $130 million, according to documents.
Together they will create 107 jobs paying between $19.23 and $24.04 per hour, for a total annual payroll of $4.55 million.
TPA is expected to save $27.1 million in property taxes over 10 years on the first two buildings alone, and another almost $30 million over the first decade when the remaining three buildings come on line. TPA has developed “many billions of {dollars}” in projects nationwide, and has 60 projects underway a totaling 35 million square feet valued at about $2 billion, Brees said.
wbush@gannett.com
@ReporterBush