Officials in Palm Beach County sent a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday afternoon, asking to be considered for phase one of the his reopening strategy.

Last week, Gov. DeSantis announced the state would begin phase one of his “Safe. Smart. Step-by-Step. Plan for Florida’s Recovery.,” with the exception of Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

Earlier this week, county commissioners voted 5-1 to send a letter to DeSantis, requesting that they be considered for inclusion in phase one of that strategy.

Click here to read the full letter

“The board made a decision that we are ready to open businesses in Palm Beach County as set forth in Section 3 and 4 of Executive Order 2020-112,” reads the letter by Palm Beach County Mayor David Kerner. “We are recommending you consider and grant our county the opportunity to reopen in Phase 1 of your plan in a similar fashion to other counties in the state outside of South Florida.”

The letter also states that the board of county commissioners voted unanimously to consider reopening local beaches.

The commission plans to hold a special meeting Friday to review a proposed order that would allow those beach restrictions to be relaxed.