State allowing bars and restaurants to return to normal hours

Posted 1/5/21

With COVID-19-related hospitalizations dropping across the state, Gov. Mark Gordon is no longer requiring bars and restaurants to close at 10 p.m. Starting Saturday, Jan. 9, establishments can …

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State allowing bars and restaurants to return to normal hours

Posted

With COVID-19-related hospitalizations dropping across the state, Gov. Mark Gordon is no longer requiring bars and restaurants to close at 10 p.m. Starting Saturday, Jan. 9, establishments can legally return to normal operating hours.

“Thank you to the people of Wyoming who recognized the strain on their hospitals and health care workers and acted accordingly,” Gordon said in a Saturday statement.

As of Saturday, there were 99 COVID patients hospitalized at Wyoming facilities — down significantly from a peak of 247 patients on Nov. 30.

However, Gordon’s office also noted Wyoming saw 223 deaths related to COVID-19 in December, which was the highest monthly total since the beginning of the pandemic in March; that followed 128 deaths in November.

Outside of restoring normal business hours and allowing fitness classes to include up to 25 people instead of 10, the governor announced he’s extending the other portions of the state’s health orders — including the requirement that people wear masks in most public settings — through at least Jan. 25.

“These have not been easy times for anyone,” Gordon said. “We are not out of the woods yet, but continued personal safety measures while the vaccine is being distributed will enable our state’s schools and businesses to continue to remain open.”

He said it was the response of Wyomingites that led to the drop in hospitalizations — and he specifically thanked the businesses “that adapted to these temporary measures.”

Citing rising deaths and hospitalizations, Gordon had issued a series of more restrictive public health orders on Dec. 9. That included a statewide mask mandate and a rule prohibiting bars and restaurants from offering in-person service between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. In explaining the curfew, State Health Officer Dr. Alexia Harrist said the establishments are high-risk environments for COVID-19 transmission and closing them for part of the day was intended to “avoid closing these businesses altogether” while having an “at least partial effect on transmission.”

However, the restrictions drew vocal criticism and some defiance. “Because Covid appears at 10:01 p.m,” the owners of Meeteetse’s Elkhorn Bar & Grill sarcastically said of the rationale behind the rules.

In mid-December, a Park County Sheriff’s deputy visited the Elkhorn around 11:30 p.m. and noted they were past the curfew; owners Magnum and Rachel Faust subsequently announced on Facebook they would “continue on as we always have and keep fighting.”

Around that same time, The Red Zone Sports Bar and Grill in Powell declared itself to be a “travel center” and therefore exempt from state’s orders and the 10 p.m. curfew. Owner James Andrews made the announcement after a Powell police officer stopped by the establishment around midnight and reminded them of the rules.

Law enforcement officers — who’ve generally taken an educational approach to the public health orders — took no further action to enforce the health orders.

Park County Public Health officials had themselves pushed back against the restriction. County Health Officer Dr. Aaron Billin asked to have local businesses exempted from the curfew, but he was turned down by Dr. Harrist on Dec. 11; she said several metrics showed COVID-19 transmission remained too high in the county.

In recognition of the economic impact of the reduced hours, Gordon and the Wyoming Business Council rolled out a “Hospitality Loss Relief Program” that offered up to $50,000 to bars, taverns, restaurants and hotels that stood to lose revenue from Dec. 9-30. A total of 144 Wyoming businesses received more than $1.5 million through the program, according to payment records posted to the state’s transparency platform at www.WyOpen.gov. Funding for the relief program came from the state’s $1.25 billion share of the federal CARES Act, passed by Congress last year with a Dec. 30 cut-off for reimbursements.

Only establishments that “derive their primary revenues between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. from the sale for on-site consumption of malt beverage, wine and/or liquor” were eligible for funding under the state rules. Businesses were also required to certify they were complying with all applicable public health orders and had to continue to pay their usual workers.

Park County recipients included the K-Bar Saloon in Powell ($18,980) and Cody’s Silver Dollar Bar ($15,125).

The WyOpen records also listed Our Place Inc. — the operator of the Cody restaurant Our Place Cafe — as receiving $7,228 from the program, but the Business Council said that was an error; the actual recipient of those funds was a Diamondville bar, operated by the similarly named Our Place 777 LLC, the council said.

Meanwhile, the loosening of the public health orders has not silenced their orders’ critics: A group led by outgoing state Rep. Scott Clem, R-Gillette, protested Gordon’s “tyranny” on Monday outside the state Capitol.

“Many of you have practiced civil disobedience to unlawful orders, some of you are planning on suing the state because your rights or finances have been harmed, and 70% of our state is furious because our elected leaders won’t stand for election integrity,” Clem had said in a Facebook post last week, adding, “It’s time to make them hear our voices.”

To see the state’s current and past COVID-19 health orders, visit https://covid19.wyo.gov/.

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