Here are some of the things happening in the week ahead:
- Harris County COVID-19 Relief Fund to open public application for aid Tuesday
- This year’s Pride Houston celebration will be a march and rally held at City Hall Saturday
- Get full coronavirus coverage here, plus a tracker for the Greater Houston Area, charts, useful guidance, a list of food distributions events, and a list of area testing sites.
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Harris County mask order takes effect Monday
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo signed an order on Friday mandating that businesses in the county that provide goods or services directly to the public must implement policies requiring employees and customers to wear masks.
The order states that “all commercial entities in Harris County providing goods or services directly to the public must develop, post, and implement a health and safety policy. The Health and Safety Policy must require, at a minimum, that all employees or visitors to the commercial entity’s business premises or other facilities wear face coverings when in an area or performing an activity which will necessarily involve close contact or proximity to co-workers or the public.”
The order will take effect at 12:01 a.m. Monday, June 22, and is currently set to expire at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, June 30.
Click here for more information.
Harris County COVID-19 Relief Fund to open public application for aid Tuesday
The Harris County COVID-19 Relief Fund will open its public application to all eligible Harris County residents in its second phase of fund deployment. The public application will be open Tuesday, June 23 and Wednesday, June 24, 2020, the county announced in a release.
“We have a moral obligation to take care of our most vulnerable residents,” said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo. “Far too many of our neighbors, friends and family members - through no fault of their own - have lost their jobs. They are struggling to pay rent, their bills, and to put food on the table. As a community we must rally together to ensure that our most vulnerable residents don’t fall through the cracks. This fund will provide thousands of families with some immediate and much-needed relief.”
Harris County residents can apply for aid online at www.harriscountyrelief.org or over the phone at (832) 848-0214. The online application will open at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, June 23 and close at 10 p.m. on Wednesday, June 24. The multilingual phone application will be available from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, June 23 and from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Wednesday, June 24.
The Fund is open to all eligible low-income Harris County residents. Generally, recipients must be eligible for and receiving services from a long list of public benefits programs OR earn under 60 be of the area’s median income, be a resident of Harris County, have been economically impacted by COVID-19, and not have received funding from a City or County COVID-19 financial assistance program, according to a release from the county.
By Friday, June 26, all applicants will receive an email and/or text notification regarding the status of their application.
For more information on the relief fund or to apply, visit www.harriscountyrelief.org.
H-E-B Spring Green Market opening in Richmond Wednesday
The new H-E-B location is located at 9211 FM 723 in Richmond, TX and will be open daily from 7am – 11pm beginning June 24th.
Sugar Land Skeeters to hold open tryouts for its 4-league pro-baseball Wednesday
The Sugar Land Skeeters will hold open tryouts for the four-team professional baseball league being developed by the Skeeters. Tryouts at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, June 24 at Constellation Field.
Participants must fill out a registration form and waiver in order to try out. All waivers must be submitted to Ryan Posner at rposner@sugarlandskeeters.com by close of business on Tuesday, June 23, as there will be no walk-up registrations accepted.
The Skeeters will abide by federal and state health guidelines relating to COVID-19 throughout the tryouts.
Those who had registered and paid for the previously scheduled tryout in April will not need to re-register for the upcoming tryout.
For more information about tryouts or to register, visit sugarlandskeeters.com/tryouts or call (281)240-4487.
Houston City Council Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee to discuss city’s processes related to officer-involved shooting at meeting Thursday
The Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee will meet at 10 a.m. on Thursday, June 25 to provide an overview of internal and external investigative and oversight processes related to HPD officer-involved shootings.
“In an effort to propose community-informed and data-driven recommendations to Mayor Turner, we collectively agreed to invite the public to join the upcoming Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee meeting on June 25, 2020, at 10:00 AM to discuss sound policing, and the Independent Police Oversight Board’s effectiveness,” the city officials wrote in a letter to the public.
Due to COVID-19, it has still not been decided whether the committee will meet in-person or virtually for this meeting. The meeting will be livestreamed online via HTV.
For more information and updates on the City of Houston Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee, click here.
Conroe Margaritaville Resort to open Friday
Margaritaville will welcome its first overnight guests on Friday, June 26.
The new property features 335 luxurious guest suites offering panoramic lake views. Onsite amenities include an 18-hole championship golf course, St. Somewhere Spa, swim-up bar and a 3-acrea water park complete with a lazy river.
Read more about the Conroe Margaritaville Resort here.
This year’s Pride Houston celebration will be a march and rally held at City Hall Saturday
This year’s Pride Houston celebration will take the form of a rally and march at City Hall as a show of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
“We are vigilantly aware that our own ability to celebrate our Pride and our progress as LGBTQIA+ people cannot be taken for granted when protesters of similar and related movements, such as the Black Lives Matter movement, take to the streets. It is with a determined mind that we at Pride Houston, Inc. have decided that this year’s Pride Celebration will be a rally and march at Houston City Hall on June 27, 2020. We stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and to recognize that Pride is not colorblind to the brutality of the world we are living in today,” Pride Houston said in a release announcing the march and rally.
The Houston march and rally will take place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 27. Pride Houston welcomes all “Houstonians and city officials” to attend.
The march and rally on June 27 will replace the organization’s annual parade and festival, which had previously been delayed to the fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read more about the march and rally here.
Garth Brooks concert to be played at 300 drive-in theaters, including the Showboat and The Drive-In at Spring Saturday
Country star Garth Brooks is holding a concert Saturday, June 27 that will be played at some 300 plus drive-in theaters in June across the county, including The Showboat and The Drive-In at Spring.
The concert event will follow guidelines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as all state and local health mandates. There will be rules on spacing between vehicles, protective equipment for staff, contactless payment and limited capacity in restrooms.
Tickets are $100 per vehicle and became available on June 19 at Ticketmaster.com/garthbrooks.
Space Center Houston to reopen to members beginning Sunday
Space Center Houston announced it is reopening its doors to the public on July 1. Members will be welcomed back beginning Sunday, June 28.
Space Center Houston will have new protocols in place, including social distancing practices, special hours for vulnerable guests and employees will be asked to wear face coverings, self-scan turnstiles, sanitizing stations, plexiglass shields at ticket counters; and a one-directional experience through its galleries.
Click here for more information.