Pandemic takes toll on Griffith businesses
The Bridges brothers swore they were doing it right.
The Bridges Scoreboard owners — Scott and Jeff — purchased the special cleaning products for employees to use constantly after customers finished up, and masks — for the employees and customers alike, at least to the extent it could be policed — were an absolute, no-exception must. As a diabetic and therefore potential patient with a higher risk of getting very sick, co-owner Jeff Bridges had no intention of inviting the coronavirus into the popular Griffith eatery and bar.
So when he got the official word Friday that an employee tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, his heart sank as he and his staff jumped into action to rid the place of any virus vestiges the person might’ve brought in. Calls to an environmental cleaning company, as well as to customers who’d planned to visit the place, were made in a hurry, he said.
“As soon as we heard (from the employee), it took us an hour and a half to shut down,” Bridges said Monday. “We had a bunch of parties over the weekend, too, and we decided we just couldn’t put anyone at risk like that.”
Bridges was one of five Griffith businesses to encounter a person with COVID-19 and therefore shut down over the last two weeks. Wildrose Brewing Company, east of Broad Street on Main Street, shut down for deep cleaning Sept. 27, according to its social media page; American Legion Post 66 announced on social media it was closing for a few days to deep clean Wednesday and reopened on Sunday. John’s Place also closed for deep cleaning and will reopen Tuesday, as will Bridges and Set ’Em Up Lanes, its owner, Griffith Councilman Tony Hobson, R-5th, said.
In a community where everyone knows everyone and which shops and eats in the same places, someone coming in with the virus was probably inevitable, Hobson said. His staff, like Bridges’ staff, have been cleaning and masked up ever since establishments were allowed to reopen in May.
“Our manager is almost fanatical about the employees wearing a mask and we have a cleaning service who comes in at night,” Hobson said.
Nevertheless, they still had an employee test positive for the virus Saturday, and a COVID-19-positive customer was there Wednesday, he said, so he wasn’t taking any chances.
“The CDC guidelines say all you have to do is clean the employee’s workstation, and that’s it. You don’t have to do anything else,” he said. “I’m sure a lot of businesses do just that, but what I discovered is that all the places in Griffith who got it, we all went above and beyond what we had to because we want our customers to be safe. I’m proud of every one of us.”
Situations like Griffith’s may
well be the rule rather than the exception as the weather continues to cool, Indiana University Northwest Associate Professor of Economics professor Micah Pollak said.
COVID-19 cases in Lake County, now closing in on 12,000, have continued to follow only Marion County, the state’s leader. In Monday’s figures from the State Department of Health, there were more new positive cases for Lake over Marion, 141-138.
A state dashboard shows Griffith with less than 300 cases, according to Monday figures.
Pollak opines the uptick in cases might be tied to COVID-19 fatigue.
“I think people are just tired of the masks, of the social distancing, of all of it, and my guess is that they decided to take advantage of the nice weather,” Pollack said. “We have at least six months to a year more before we get some sort of solution, so businesses would do well to enforce strict mask policies. No one likes them, but it may help keep businesses opened.”
Town Council President Rick Ryfa, R-3rd, said the town has kept Town Hall closed since March to protect its employees and has enforced masks as well. He’s pleased to see that the businesses took care to fix their issues as they came up.
“They didn’t need for us to mandate to them how to run their businesses,” Ryfa said. “Thankfully, most of the cases I’ve heard have been mild symptoms, so hopefully, that’s a good sign.”