Park County health officials are asking their counterparts at the state level to loosen the restrictions on local restaurants and bars.

Since the state government allowed indoor dining to resume on May 15, establishments have been required to keep tables at least 6 feet apart.

However, Park County Health Officer Dr. Aaron Billin has endorsed the idea of allowing the county’s smaller restaurants and bars to return their seating to normal. Billin plans to submit a request to State Health Officer Dr. Alexia Harrist that asks her to allow tables here to “be repositioned to their original layout” — as long as the restaurant is hosting no more than 50 people. If a restaurant or bar has more than 50 people, they would still be required to keep groups at least 6 feet apart, according to the request.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the request had not yet been received by Harrist.

The proposed variance was emailed to all of the county’s bars and restaurants, Billin told Park County commissioners on Tuesday, and “I would say the response was overwhelming. This is what they want to do.”

The doctor added that, “They all seemed to agree that seating was affecting them the most economically.”

Last week, commissioners asked Billin to look into which restrictions were causing the greatest harm to businesses and see if they could be relaxed. County officials initially planned to survey restaurants and bars, but Billin said they realized that would slow down the process.

Commissioner Lloyd Thiel, who led the push to loosen rules in Park County, thanked Billin for his work on the variance.

“It may not go as far as even I want, but it’s a start and I do appreciate it — and I know a lot of the businesses do appreciate it,” Thiel said. “Moving forward, maybe after the Fourth of July this will even keep going in our favor and maybe the governor and/or we choose to loosen up a little more.”

In the meantime, “this is going to have to help … a lot of our smaller establishments that are really hurting,” he said.

Bigger restaurants may not see difference

WYOld West Brewing Company General Manager Jessica Laughlin attended the meeting and told commissioners that she appreciated their hard work.

“It’s been difficult for everybody making decisions, and we just respect all of you and appreciate you guys fighting for us,” Laughlin told the board.

In an interview, she concurred that the limitations on the number of patrons has been the biggest hindrance for WYOld West. Under the current state rules, the business’ locations in Powell and Cody — which can normally hold nearly 100 people — have been limited to about 65% of their full capacities, she said.

“We haven’t done any banquets, so that’s really hurt us in Powell, because we couldn’t add people in there” where the unused tables were being stored, Laughlin said. She said there’s also been a drop in catering and difficulties from having to space out groups of more than six people if they’re from different households.

“Mainly it’s just the capacity,” Laughlin said. “The gloves and the masks, that’s fine.”

Amid the restrictions, she said the WYOld West restaurants have been limited to something of a skeleton crew, because you don’t want to cut tips in half for those servers that are on.

If the variance goes through, Laughlin said she hoped that WYOld West “can figure out how to bring our full crew back.” However, it appears the variance, if approved, won’t provide much relief to the business, because WYOld West is looking to host more than 50 people.

During the meeting, Billin said he had heard a concern from a businesswoman about the restrictions only being eased on groups of 50 or less.

“Well, we’re still doing something to affect the vast majority of small businesses in the county,” he told commissioners.

Park County has had six new cases of COVID-19 in the last week — triple the number that the county had in the previous three months. Billin said Tuesday that county officials “need to keep our eye on” the increase in cases, but “we still feel comfortable moving this direction” and requesting the loosened restrictions for restaurants. Billin said “we still have, per capita, one of the lowest rates in the state.” Two additional cases were reported after his remarks.

Billin also disputed the idea that the county is “over” the pandemic.

“We’re nowhere near … being through the first wave,” Billin said, with a second wave coming with cold and flu season in the fall.

“If we suddenly wipe out all restrictions, we automatically turn it into another peak [of cases],” he said. “So that’s why it’s a gradual response.”

Growing pressure

Under a new federally funded program, the State of Wyoming is offering stipends to businesses impacted by the state’s restrictions. Gov. Mark Gordon said Tuesday that $9 million of the first $22.3 million committed under the program is headed to bars and restaurants to help them pay employees “while they’re staffed down because of the spacing requirements.”

“I know this is very frustrating. When you’ve got a line of people outside your business and you’ve got empty tables, it’s got to be frustrating — you want to have that [business] in there,” Gordon said. “But again, no one wants to have that bar or that restaurant that we can say, ‘That’s where this spike [in COVID-19 cases] occurred.’”

At Thiel’s suggestion, commissioners are sending a note of support alongside the request for the county variance for the spacing. Billin said that couldn’t hurt the request’s chances with the state health officer, but he also offered that Dr. Harrist “tries to stick to the science very well,” even as she “has some political pressures on her.”

A poll conducted by University of Wyoming’s Survey and Analysis Center on June 8 found that 70% of residents strongly or somewhat approve of the way Gov. Gordon is handling the COVID-19 pandemic (down 4% from last month). But there has been plenty of anger over the restrictions.

For instance, when Park County Public Health took to Facebook to “strongly advise” businesses to consider the health and wellbeing of their patrons and employees and follow the public health orders, Zacahria Mellon of Powell responded, “If you keep infringing on people’s constitutional rights there will be other actions taken.”

“That’s not a threat it’s a promise,” Mellon wrote, “as American business owners do not have to follow these threats from you.”

One restaurant’s experience

During a discussion last week, Commission Chairman Joe Tilden asked what would happen to a business if an outbreak of cases was tied to their establishment.

Park County Public Health Nurse Manager Bill Crampton indicated that businesses will take actions on their own; he noted that a Greybull restaurant quickly closed its doors after an employee tested positive for COVID-19 this month.

“I think ... the business owners are smart enough to understand that this is a big deal,” Crampton said.

Lisa Dalin, the owner of Lisa’s Western Cuisine & Spirits in Greybull, said in a letter to the editor of the Greybull Standard last week that “the no-brainer priority was to not facilitate the spread.”

The rest of the Lisa’s staff were tested for COVID-19 and ordered to self-quarantine for 14 days, regardless of the results, Dalin said, because of the possibility of false negatives. That left the restaurant — which had just barely reopened its dining room — closed through at least Saturday.

“The COVID process concern is about data-gathering [and not] employee livelihood or business survival,” she wrote in her letter to the Standard, saying the process includes “penal undertones.”

“Maybe I’ll need bailed from jail the next time this happens, but for certain, there will be a next time — either to us, to someone down the street or in the next near town,” Dalin wrote. “To be in the business of serving the public means this kind of fiasco will happen again and again to us all.”

For her part, Dalin said she will close Lisa’s restaurant when needed and reopen when the threat has passed — “and I will keep doing so right up until I can’t afford to anymore.”

Big Horn County’s incident management team said last week that businesses “have been fantastic” in their efforts to keep their workers safe and employed and to protect community members.

“Please, we encourage you to support local businesses,” the Big Horn County leaders said.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Commissioner Jake Fulkerson praised Billin and Crampton for their work on the variance request for the county’s bars and restaurants, calling it well thought-out, responsive and timely.

“We’re trying to please,” said Billin.

“Well, more importantly, we’re trying to do the right thing,” said Crampton.

Commissioner Tilden said he hoped that the pandemic doesn’t worsen in Park County and force the reimposition of restrictions.

“I pray to God that it does not,” he said.