The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
As potential reopening nears, questions abound
With May 20 on the horizon, Connecticut business owners are waiting on the state’s advisory council for specific guidance on how to reopen — and some are weighing the pros and cons of doing so at all.
The state could reach one benchmark for reopening — a 14-day decline in net hospitalizations — on Wednesday, but that doesn’t mean the state will reopen overnight, and there’s almost no chance the reopen date will change from May 20, in part because businesses will need time to prepare.
Members of the reopening advisory council have been speaking with business owners and employees through phone and video calls, and some members have taken it upon themselves to venture out into the community to collect first-hand observations about how businesses might be able to safely operate as the state slowly reopens.
“It will take time in order to put in place all of these regulations and for businesses to prepare,” said John Olsen, the former president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO and a member of the business sub-committee of the reopen advisory group.
“If you’re going to open a restaurant, you have to prepare and that takes time. I don’t really see it happening three, four, five days earlier. I think clearly people are going to start working toward that date pretty quickly and it’s not that far away anymore.”
Speaking during Lamont’s daily media briefing Monday, Dr. William Petit, a Republican state representative, said businesses will need time to obtain protective equipment and contact and retrain employees about new protocols.
“We also have to reinforce the basics: masks still play a role, not touching your face and sanitizing,” Petit said. “If you’re sick, stay home.”
Places like restaurants will need time to secure and set up outdoor seating, barriers will need to be built for social distancing, and hair and nail salons will need to build out appointment calendars, for example.
And some businesses are weighing the costs of opening at such a limited capacity at a time when public confidence may be low anyway.
“I’ve talked to people that just because you’re allowed to be open doesn’t mean you want to be open,” said Joe Brennan, president and CEO of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association and a member of the advisory committee.
“You have to consider the confidence level of employees that they can go back to the workplace and be safe, the confidence level of general public that if they access your business they will be safe, and the employers need confidence that reopening will be worthwhile. If beginning to open is so restrictive that you can’t operate at a profit, is it worth it? Then they risk employees moving on to places that do choose to open, and they have to consider the competitive advantage of opening.”
People need to be able to count on their peers to wear masks, wash their hands and keep their distance, even after things begin to reopen, Olsen said.
“You don’t wear the mask for you, you wear the mask for me,” said Olsen, who is 70. “How do we get through to the macho, ‘oh I don’t want to wear a mask.’ Well it’s not for you, it’s for me.”
Brennan, Olsen and Petit all said for businesses to open successfully, the public will need to be able to expect a relative level of safety in the community.
“Ultimately, it’s every resident of the state of Connecticut that’s going to determine whether we have a successful reopening more than the institutions involved,” Brennan said. “It’s going to be the basic stuff we’ve been learning about. Wearing PPE or face coverings for most people, washing your hands regularly, keeping your hands away from your face. As things reopen, everyone has to change behaviors. Regardless of what you feel about the decisions made to date, if you want to open things up, everybody needs to participate, so we’re thinking about how we can communicate with folks, how can we get our community opened up. If they see everybody out wearing a mask, then they’ll have more confidence.”