Main Street quiet, industry stays open
Evers’ order has retail, hospitality business impacts
Multiple orders by Gov. Tony Evers intended to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) over the past two weeks have shuttered bars, restaurants, retail shops and hair salons in Athens, Edgar, Marathon City and Stratford, but the villages’ manufacturing industrial businesses in these communities mostly appear to be running like normal. That’s what a car tour of Main Streets and business parks in the four communities on Thursday turned up. Traffic in all four of the communities was subdued and there were few people on the street. Some people were out walking to enjoy the weather, but village Main Streets were largely depopulated. Manufacturers in the local business parks, however, seemed relatively unaffected by Gov. Evers’ “safer at home” declaration last week Tuesday. Many parking lots in front of factories were full of cars.
In Ever’s Order No. 12, the governor issued a “stay at home” order that closed schools, restaurants, bars, retail shops, hair salons and tanning businesses, but allowed “essential” manufacturing businesses to stay open if the firms keep their workers distanced six feet apart to prevent spread of COVID- 19.
Keith Paul, president of the Marathon Area Business Association (MABA), on Friday said eventually all village businesses will be impacted by COVID-19 and the governor’s “stay at home” order but that, at present, it is the bars, restaurants and hair salons who are “really getting clobbered.”
He said many local bars and restaurants were offering takeout food and, at least for one local restaurant owner, this was working out well. This owner, said Paul, fried up 120 pounds of fish last week Friday night for takeout orders.
Still, he said these small businesses, including the hair salons, were losing a “chunk of their business” due to COVID- 19. He said wait staff at restaurants have been impacted. “They are an integral part of the economy,” he said.
Paul said Marathon’s factories have largely not been affected by COVID-19 and the governor’s decrees.
“The manufacturing sector does not appear to be impacted,” he said. “They appear to be working.”
He thought sooner or later, however, the COVID-19 would take its toll on local factories.
“It will impact the larger businesses that manufacture stuff when people can no longer afford to purchase that stuff,” he said.
In Stratford, Mark Snyder, president of the Stratford Chamber of Commerce, agreed that the COVID-19 situation was having its “biggest impact” on local bars and restaurants.
He said the chamber members hoped to design a raffle that would entice customers to take out food from these establishments. The details of the project have not yet been figured out.
He said local Stratford manufacturing businesses were operating. “All essential businesses are up and running,” he said. He said the current economic hardship was temporary and that at some point business would rebound.
“Everybody knows we will get through this,” he said. “We’re resilient.”
County picture
The pattern seen in how business is impacted in four local villages seems to be playing out across the county.
Judy Burrows, public information officer for the Marathon County Health Department, said Gov. Evers’ orders have impacted bars, restaurants, hair salons, theaters, gyms, shopping malls and pools, but not manufacturing businesses.
“I am not aware of a manufacturer that has closed,” she said.
The officer said businesses and individuals across the county are calling the department to find out just how to interpret Gov. Evers’ 14-page Order No. 12 and to find out if they are “essential” or “not essential.”
“We are taking over 50 calls per day from citizens and business owners,” she said. “We take questions from business owners about their individual situation and apply those circumstances to the Executive Order and make a decision about whether or not they can be open.”
Burrows said it is not surprising that, generally, manufacturing businesses are open when other businesses must close their doors.
“The reality is most manufacturers are essential,” she said.
Burrows said manufacturing businesses are required to insure that their workers practice social distancing in order not to spread COVID-19.
