Carbon County Commissioners are preparing so when Gov. Tom Wolf says Carbon can move into the yellow phase, they will be ready. No date on when the county will move to the yellow phase has been announced by the state.

On Thursday, the board spoke about discussions that have been happening as officials begin to think about safely reopening the county. One thing they did note is that they will not defy Wolf’s orders because it is the business owners and residents who would suffer the most by doing so.

Commissioner Rocky Ahner said that in the meantime, the maintenance department has been installing Plexiglas in offices to protect employees, and are looking at ways to safely bring furloughed employees back.

“As a county we should be prepared for any circumstance,” he said. “I would like to call it two steps forward and one step backward in case of reinfection.”

The county’s safety committee will be meeting next week to try to continue to further plan for expanding its offices back to normal operation in the coming months.

Looking at the county as a whole, Ahner said there have been conversations to create better guidance to businesses on how they could reopen with the least amount of risk.

Restaurants, for example, which thrive on sit-down services, could go by a step-up system, meaning using a percentage of capacity and stepping up the number of patrons over two-week increments as long as no cases at the restaurant happened.

“As we all know everyday life and businesses are not going to be full capacity in one interval,” Ahner said, “If we take common-sense steps, the turtle will beat the rabbit to our ultimate goal.”

A meeting with numerous county entities, including Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau, Lansford Alive, Lehighton Downtown Initiative, Carbon Chamber and Economic Development has also taken place in preparation of beginning a plan.

The board said a second virtual roundtable will take place soon with municipal officials as well to hopefully create a seamless plan so when the time comes, everyone is on the same page with how Carbon will begin the reopening process.

Commissioner Chris Lukasevich said that the county’s plan is about education and getting as much information out to the businesses and residents on how to safely conduct themselves ahead of moving to yellow.

Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein said, if nothing else, the recent moves within the counties have brought the governor to the table. The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania will be holding a conference call with Wolf today.