MEMPHIS, Tennessee —
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland says a state of emergency is needed in order the city can get federal money. The mayor says they’re going to need it.
Let’s talk about restaurants and bars first. Mayor Strickland has met with owners over the last few days. He’s not ordering them to close, but they are going to have to make changes.
“What we’ve done is for the last two days we’ve worked to come up with a series of protocols to reduce their capacity. To force people to sit 6 feet apart and require more extensive cleaning, like every half hour cleaning the doorknobs and restrooms and so forth,” Mayor Strickland said.
He says a lot of small business owners and employees are suffering financially through this. It’s one reason he wants federal help. Next week, he will ask the city council to dip into their savings, their reserve fund, to make bus and trolley services free, because the coin boxes have the potential to be loaded with bacteria.
“Because that’s one way the virus is spread. Repeatedly touching an area instead of cleaning it at each stop, we will commit to make MATA free for a short period of time,” said Mayor Strickland.