‘We are fully open’: Nampa removes capacity limits for events, including at Idaho Center

High school seniors in the Treasure Valley will begin graduating later this month, and many large schools will be having indoor ceremonies with no attendance limits — thanks to Nampa and the Ford Idaho Center.

At a meeting on Monday, the Nampa City Council decided to support lifting capacity limits for local events. During a discussion about the Idaho Center, a major event venue right off of Interstate 84 , the council gave its approval for lifting arena attendance caps.

On Wednesday, the Nampa School District announced that three of its high schools will hold ceremonies at the end of May at the Idaho Center, which has an indoor capacity of 12,000. There will be no limit on the number of guests admitted to the ceremonies for Columbia, Nampa and Skyview highs.

Last week, the West Ada School District — the state’s largest — rescheduled the graduations for two of its high schools, Meridian and Rocky Mountain, so that they could be held at the arena. At the time, the Idaho Center was mandating that students could bring a maximum of eight guests. But on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the school district, Char Jackson, said that there will no longer be any capacity limit at its high school graduations being held one county over.

“(Southwest District Health) is where the guidance came from to remove the cap so there is no need for an attestation form with them for the Idaho Center and they can operate at full capacity,” Jackson wrote in an email to the Statesman.

Southwest District Health has jurisdiction over Canyon County, where the Idaho Center is located. Ada County falls under the jurisdiction of Central District Health.

In an email to the Statesman, Southwest District Health spokesperson Katrina Williams said that “we have never enforced or restricted anyone’s rights as it pertains to SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). However, there has been a perception that we have done so by making recommendations or providing guidance. ... We rely on individuals, business owners, bodies of government, including schools, to make their own decisions about what, if any, measures they choose to take to protect their health and the health of their families, employers, students, or patrons.”

On Tuesday, Southwest District Health passed a resolution “supporting individuals’ abilities to make responsible decisions concerning their own health and well-being,” according to a news release. For events larger than 50 people, the district still asks that planners submit safety proposals for review, according to its website.

Though some sections of the Idaho Center will have cordoned-off seats to allow for social distancing, others will allow groups to sit right next to each other, according to Andrew Luther, the venue’s general manager. Masks, which are strongly encouraged by the local health district indoors, will not be required.

“We are fully open,” Luther told the Statesman, “but there’s a lot more than meets the eye.”

The Idaho Center has held events of various sizes — with limited capacity — since last June, including graduations, sporting events, trade shows and dinners. Luther said the venue has a hospital-grade heating, ventilation and air conditioning system to filter air, and that area is frequently sanitized.

Though the attendance limit has been lifted, Luther said he expects the number of people at graduations to be between 3,000 and 4,000, well below capacity. In addition to graduations, several horse-related events are scheduled for the Idaho Center in May.

In Boise, where a public health order is still in effect and where indoor masks are still required, currently scheduled graduations remain limited. The Boise School District is holding graduations for Boise, Borah, Capital and Timberline at ExtraMile Arena on Boise State University’s campus, and students are limited to inviting up to four guests, according to a release.

At Monday’s council meeting in Nampa, council members discussed whether fully reopening events would violate health guidelines from Gov. Brad Little. The state is still in a modified Stage 3 of its reopening, which includes that “gatherings should be limited to 50 or fewer people” unless an exemption is granted after organizers submit a safety plan to their local health district, according to the state’s website. The Nampa council emphasized that much of the language in state directives includes “should” rather than “must.”

“I have concern working in health care and having seen COVID ravage families and people, I just want to be really, really careful that we are not setting a precedent that we can’t back up from,” said council member Jean Mutchie.

Mayor Debbie Kling said she hopes the city’s decision to do away with attendance limits doesn’t cause a resurgence of coronavirus cases.

“The thing I would hate to have happen is that we have an outbreak in Nampa because we opened the doors,” she said. “I don’t want that accusation.”