As Governor Kim Reynolds has lifted more restrictions this week in her public health emergency declaration, Panora Mayor Pat Parker gave an update on which City-owned property is open at their City Council meeting this week.

Parker mentioned that City Hall is in its second week of being reopened to the public, and he hopes to open City parks on June 1st, though playgrounds must still be closed through June 17th, so he suggested putting some sort of barricade up for that equipment. He also stated that he had spoken with the City’s Parks and Rec Board, who predicted that their summer sports seasons wouldn’t begin until July, with practices in late June at the earliest.

While the 10 person limit on gatherings shall be lifted on June 1st, Parker says the City would still be required to restrict those in the Veteran’s Auditorium and Community Center to 50% capacity, “The owner of the building has to be able to enforce the social distancing and the limit in there. So based on that it’s staff recommendation and I agree with staff that we continue not to allow rentals of the community center or Vet’s (Auditorium) of the bigger groups yet, because we can’t guarantee how many people are in there or if they’re social distancing.”

Parker also mentioned to the Council that the public library plans to reopen on June 1st with a phased approach. In other meeting business, the Council approved authorizing an exception to their pushcart peddlers, solicitors, and transient merchants chapter for Deardoff Highland Cattle Mobile Food Unit to operate for more than a week at 316 Northeast 3rd Street sometime in June.