El Centro officials meet with local church leaders
EL CENTRO, Calif. (KYMA, KSWT), El Centro officials met with church leaders today to start developing a plan to reopening local churches.
Originally the city of El Centro had said places of worship could reopen with restrictions starting Monday, but city officials are now telling church leaders to hold off
Reopening places of worship was part of El Centro’s phase two plan, but with guidelines from the state changing daily city officials say it’s now uncertain.
Wednesday’s meeting held at Calvary Chapel in El Centro was filled with church leaders from across the county many hoping to get a time frame for when their congregations could gather again.
“We want to do everything we can to allow for a sensible reopening. We are waiting at this point for an announcement by the governor tomorrow. Following that announcement we’ll have a much more firm opening date," said Ken Herbert, El Centro Fire Chief.
Chief Herbert instructed church leaders about safety measures that should be implemented at each church.
“We know that they want to keep their people safe. I fully expect that they are going to do everything necessary even beyond some of the things we’ve talked about today. Visiting this location and the way it’s set up I didn't tell them to do it this way, they did it on their own," said Herbert.
“We’re probably gonna have to look into going into multiple services in order to accommodate social distancing within each service, but we are going to meet with staff so when that date comes we are ready for it," said Pastor Chris Nunn, Christ Community Church.
