KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Various stay-at-home mandates could cause confusion for Kansas City metro businesses.
Clay County on Wednesday amended its stay-at-home order through May 3, while the mandate in Kansas City, Missouri, remains in effect through May 15.
Queen Sweets & Bakery is located in Clay County, but also Kansas City. The owner told 41 Action News he was hoping to reopen his dining room but will have to remain closed.
“People prefer to dine in more than take-out, but still we’re going to go with city guidance and we’ll wait until May 15," Mohamed Bataineh said.
Clay County's stay-at-home order does not impact the one in Kansas City. KCMO Mayor Quinton Lucas told 41 Action News that businesses in Kansas City must follow Kansas City's rules, not the county in which they are located.
“In Kansas City, we will continue to be responsible with how we do reopening, how we discuss reopening," Lucas said. "What we’re not going to do is just respond to political pressure or the political winds, which I think regrettably is what we’re seeing right now."
Clay County leaders told 41 Action News that reopening is the best thing for people in the county.
“One of the things that we’re all looking at, including the director of public health, is the data and the numbers, and they seem to indicate that we were in a position to where we could start doing this reopening," said Jerry Nolte, Clay County presiding commissioner.
Lucas disagrees with Clay County's assessment, pointing to the fact the city saw a higher spike in new infections on Wednesday than the previous 10 days.
Caught in the middle are businesses like Queen Sweets & Bakery that are hoping to get back to normal soon.
City and county leaders do agree that a plan must be in place for the reopening process, and it must be slow.
"I don't think there's any responsible person out there who says that we should just throw everything open," Nolte said.
