New Year's Eve plans adjusted for safety
State’s 10 p.m. curfew leads some bars to put twists on the festivities.
While many would love to see 2020 of ff fina truly dramatic fashion, local and statewide man dates created to address the spread of the corona virus have made the ultimate New Year’s Eve celebration a bit harder to pull offff this year.
The statewide curfew of 10 p.m. means ringing in the new year in a public space is no longer possible — a setback that has led to some truly inventive public 2020 send off ff ff ff ff ffs.
Social distancing and occupancy guidelines have also made it difficult to celebrate the New Year with friends and family in one space.
“We’re all anxious to put 2020 behind us, butwe still need to be cautious as we move into 2021,” said Vicky Knisley-Henry, a spokeswoman for Miami County Public Health.
Despite the obstacles, numerous local businesses and organizations have managed to come up with innovative ways to say goodbye to 2020.
Establishments like the Dublin Pub in Dayton and Star City Brewing Company in Miamisburg will celebrate different time zones in order to properly toast the new year before 10 p.m.
“Given the curfew, we thought it might be fun to celebrate the newyear for a territory in a different time zone,” said Justin Kohnen, owner of the Star City Brewing Company. “We chose South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, which are three hours ahead of us.”
The Dublin Pub adjusted its celebration to include a toast to several New Year’s celebrations in countries around the world. This international celebration will begin with a toast to Germany at 6 p.m., then a toast for Ireland at 7 p.m., for Iceland at 8 p.m., and finally for Brazil at 9 p.m.
“We are fortunate in that every year we celebrate New Year’s twice — once at 7 p.m. for Ireland, toasting at the same time Ireland celebrates New Year’s across the pond,” said Steve Tieber, owner of the Dublin Pub. “We decided to make the most of this type of thinking (this year), by celebrating four distinct time zones starting at 6p.m. We will also have livemusic featuring the talents of two great Celtic and Irish bands, Father, Son, & Friends, as well as Jameson’s Folly.”
Safety issues
Lt. Matt Schmenk, commander of the Xenia Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, said it isn’t law enforcement’s job to enforce the governor’ s mandate sand will not pull over drivers out past curfew.
Schmenk said drunk driving is still a concern this holiday and his post will deploy additional units on New Year’s Eve to watch for impaired driving. Schmenk implored celebrants tomake sure theyhave a sober driver.
“I don’t really know how the pandemic is going to affect New Year’s,” he said. “It’s something we can’t predict. … Driving sober saves lives and willmake our roadways safer.”
Last New Year’s Eve, the Ohio State Highway Patrol made 124 OVI arrests statewide.
Change in celebrations
Due to these coronavirus-related restrictions, several of the area’s most popular events have been canceled or altered to become a virtual experience.
Star City Brewing Company in Miamisburg typically ushers in the New Year with its annual Star Drop, a miniature version of the New Year’s Eve ball drop that takes place on their outdoor patio. However, this year, to comply with newguidelines, the brewery will be hosting a scaled-down version of their New Year’s Eve event.
Those guests who would rather watch from home can register for the livestream of the New Year’s Eve event. While at the event, guests will be expected to follow all guidelines in order to ensure that the event goeson without a hitch. Aside from requiring masks when not consuming food or beverages and social distancing, the brewery is encouraging its guests to remain seated throughout the event and avoid congregating.
“To prevent people from gathering in a group on our patio to watchour StarDrop, we will require everyone to remain seated in the brewerywhilewe live stream the drop to all our televisions in the brewery,” said Kohnen.
To make its celebration possible, the Dublin Pub will enforce several rules to ensure that all customers remain safe and secure — while still having a good time.
“Obviously, the stay at home orders and the changed the nature of our business considerably,” said Tieber. “We are treating New Year’s Eve just like any other day. We are open with nearly 180 seats, socially distant and with our facility and employees following all the CDC as well as Ohio health guidelines.”
The Century Bar also will host a rather cheeky celebration, ringing in the New Year every hour, on the hour.
“Given our restrictions with the curfew and the groundhog day of a year that 2020 has been, we decided that every hour on the hourwe will ring out the old year,” said JosephHead, the co-owner ofCentury Bar. “We are simply making the best of this unprecedented situation.”
Reservations for the event open at 3 p.m. today and can be made by visiting the Century Bar’s website.
Additionally, the Trolley Stop in Dayton’s Oregon District in will be scaling down its typical NewYear’s Eve celebration in order to secure a safe (and, well, sanitized) environment. Since the Oregon District establishment cannot have a proper celebration this year, due to decreased occupancy standards, the Trolley Stop has not put together an elaborate event this year.
“We can’t have the magic of saying goodbye to 2020 together,” saidRobin Sassenberg, owner of the Trolley Stop. “Every year, we have a celebration with livemusic, hats and champagne, but [this year] that’s not possible. We will do a small champagne toast at 9:30 p.m., but we can’t have a crowd, so we aren’t really promoting anything. No livemusic! Which is so sad and has been a heartbreaker all this year.”
A number of other restaurants and bars, like Hole in theWall, Troll Pub, Jay’s Seafood, Lily’s Dayton, Lucky’s Taproom and Trolley Stop are also serving up COVIDfriendly New Year’s Eve events this year.
Advice on celebrating
Area health officials said their advice for celebrating New Year’s is the same as it was for other winter holidays: stay home and celebrate only with those you live with.
“You shouldn’t go to or attend parties with anyone who doesn’t already live in your same household,” said Dan Suffoletto, spokesman for Public Health – Dayton & Montgomery County.
If you decide to go out or host a celebration, the Centers for Disease Control recommends wearing a face mask and social distancing.
Knisley-Henry said if an event is too crowded when you arrive, “go home or go somewhere else.”
The coronavirus remains widespread — there were 8,569 cases reported from Dec. 9 to Dec. 22 in Montgomery, Greene, Miami and Warren Counties. Given population, each county is over seven times what the CDC defines as high incidence.
Hospitals are seeking to avoid a post-holiday surge, which could push already stretched health care capacity over the limit. It could be weeks before the region knows the effects of Christmas parties on coronavirus spread since it takes time for the virus to cause symptoms, tests to detect the virus and results to be reported.