President Donald Trump and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have dueling timelines of when to begin ending COVID-19 isolations and business closures.

The utmost care should be taken to protect public safety and prevent flare-ups or greater spread of the COVID-19 virus. That much is obvious. A plan being floated by Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, and Assemblyman Andrew Goodell, R-Jamestown, may provide a template to help reopen the state’s rural counties that don’t have the problems caused by population density created in the state’s bigger cities. We hope Gov. Andrew Cuomo considers the Chautauqua County elected officials’ plan when finalizing his plan to reopen the state.

Simply reopening businesses is not likely to result in a rush of commerce for many small businesses, particularly judging from the comments we see coming from a county with relatively few confirmed infections and hospitalizations. People are scared. Local budgets are strained and the state doesn’t have the capacity to simply add money to help spur business activity.

It is good to know that, behind the scenes, discussions are being had amongst business and elected officials about what business owners feel they need to reopen their businesses. Some things don’t require vast sums of money. Social distancing is going to be with us for a while, so what can be done to encourage enough people to frequent businesses who will be operating at half- or three-quarters’ capacity to help businesses be able to keep their doors open after the stay-home orders are lifted? Can we devise some new, socially distant events that can draw traffic into the county’s business districts? Are there coupon programs that can entice people to spend their hard-earned money, particularly at a time when people will have been scrimping for months? These are the types of discussions that can happen locally while elected officials at the state and federal levels figure out what they can do to help.

The past month has taken quite a toll on Chautauqua County’s economy. If we aren’t taking preventative measures now, we may continue paying COVID-19’s toll for the rest of the year — and who knows how many of our small businesses will have disappeared by the time the dust settles.