Westport and Pacific County closed beaches/hospitality businesses
Local cities put measures in place to close access to their beaches.
While the local cities do not have the ability to close off state beaches, each city has announced that closures will be placed on the beach approaches leading to the areas.
In an emergency resolution from the City of Westport on Saturday, they have said that all vacation rental homes, hotels, motels, and other transient rental businesses must close.
The resolution states the action follows the amount of out of the area visitors that are not following the Governor’s state of emergency.
The city is allowing current users of the local businesses that are registered for longer than 30 days, but all other visitors are blocked from access.
In Pacific County, all beach approaches and hospitality businesses are closed until further notice,
In a release it states that Pacific County Health Officer Dr. Steven Krager has determined that additional steps are needed to limit gathering measures in light of the increasing scope and severity of the threat that COVID-19 poses.
“Although we have zero confirmed COVID-19 cases within Pacific County, confirmed cases of infection and increasing instances of the infection spreading within other areas of Washington State warrant this order.”
Dr. Krager’s order was supported by the Pacific County Board of Commissioners, City of South Bend Mayor Julie Struck, City of Long Beach Mayor Jerry Phillips, City of Raymond Mayor Tony Nordin and the City of Ilwaco Mayor Gary Forner.
The announcement states that while the order will hopefully be temporary and will most certainly disrupt the daily mainstream of each respective jurisdiction’s operations,
All hospitality lodging within the boundaries of Pacific County is closed until further notice.
This includes:
- Resort, Hotels, Motels
- Short-term Rentals, Timeshares, Homestays (including Bed and Breakfast)
- Campgrounds
- RV Parks
- Private property being used as campgrounds
It also states that once this order is lifted, each jurisdiction hopes that everyone will come back and enjoy our ocean beaches and all that Pacific County has to offer.
These announcements follow an influx of visitors to the beaches over the weekend, despite a cancellation of clam digging and other activities and advisories to limit social interactions.
