ITHACA, N.Y.(WENY)-- Ithaca Mayor, Svante Myrick, is apart of the Southern Tier Regional Control room, who is responsible for keeping tabs on COVID-19 numbers and data throughout the Southern Tier.

"There are about 15 of us from across the entire region, mostly county executives who are all coordinating, watching the data, making sure our virus numbers are going in the right direction not the wrong direction  and making coordinated decisions about what can open and when," says Mayor Svante Myrick, City of Ithaca.

Mayor Myrick told WENY News that he is hopeful the Southern Tier region will make it through all the state's re-opening phases seamlessly. 

"We have a meeting every afternoon with all 15 of us and it's been very useful so far as we make our way through all four phases of reopening, knock on wood we can make it through all four uninterrupted, that control room will continue to be useful," Myrick tells WENY News.

As of right now, Myrick says Ithaca is smoothly working through it's first full week of phase one, but he warns that this is not the time to relax just yet, as we are not out of he woods with COVID-19 just yet. 

"The reopening doesn't mean let's just go back to normal, it means we can open our economy, but we each have to take individual responsibility in order to make a collective impact," says Myrick. "Everyone is going to have to continue to wear masks when in public, at a distance of six feet at least, and wash your hands regularly and thoroughly.  The reopening doesn't mean let's just go back to normal, it means we can open our economy, but we each have to take individual responsibility in order to make a collective impact."

Many municipal and county leaders are taking a hard look at the significant financial impact this virus has had on their local economies. 

"We are looking at a local municipal budget deficit that could be 15 million dollars. To put that into perspective, that is 5 times the largest budget deficit the city of Ithaca has ever seen in any given year. The 3 million dollars was during the great recession."

Ithaca's goal is to stay on the right path and to hopefully starting digging out of this financial hole before it things get worse. Earlier this month, the city furloughed close to 100  city employees, in an effort to save more than 5-million dollars.