Businesses moving forward, with or without masks

Monday’s steady lunch hour crowd kept David Kemp and his staff busy at Le Peep in Coeur d’Alene. It’s a crowd Kemp said he has no intention of taking for granted.

“Obviously, at the beginning of the pandemic, closing for five weeks was really, really hard,” the co-owner of the popular Riverstone breakfast restaurant said. “After last April, we didn’t know if we were ever going to re-open. That was really, really scary.”

A year later, Le Peep is not only open again but flourishing in the wake of COVID-19. Kemp said this spring’s sales — thanks in part, he says, to a neighboring Washington economy just now starting to re-open — is on pace to be his best ever.

“We’ve been fortunate,” he said. “We’re very blessed. This has been difficult for a lot of businesses.”

One of those difficulties, Kemp said, has been the list of health protocols put in place since the onset of COVID-19.

Protocols handed down by Gov. Brad Little in late April 2020 to combat a virus the World Health Organization reports has killed 2.8 million people worldwide had businesses across Idaho walking a tightrope between staying open at limited capacity with smaller revenues and not opening back up ever again. Kemp said those protocols were necessary, but he added that they also became cumbersome.

“As a business person, I’m trying to do what’s important for the business,” he said. “But we also have a responsibility to the safety of our customers. We don’t always know what’s 100 percent correct. We’re trying to find that middle-of-the-road to grow our businesses back.”

With North Idaho’s new case numbers flattened — only 12 new cases were reported in the five northernmost counties Tuesday, as opposed to 410 on Dec. 9, the height of the pandemic — many local businesses are doing away with the health protocols that have regulated commerce in the era of COVID-19.

“We stopped wearing our masks on Friday,” Kemp said. “As soon as we heard the mask mandate ended, I told our staff we could take them off.”

That mask mandate, implemented by Panhandle Health’s board in January, was rescinded March 25, a month ahead of its expiration as cases cratered. Since then — and even before — many businesses have rolled back their protocols.

Plexiglas barrier counts are fewer and farther between. Tables have become less spaced apart. Normal, or whatever normal will look like in the post-COVID world, is slowly emerging.

“You’re going to see Jimmy’s operate at as normal a capacity as humanly possible,” said Jim Purdy, owner of Jimmy’s Down The Street on Sherman Avenue. “Our customers have told us, ‘There’s nothing like a little bit of normality.’”

Many businesses declined comment for this story, saying the politicization of the pandemic has forced them to refrain from stating one way or the other whether they have or will roll back their health protocols, for fears of alienating their customers. Purdy said he understands that reluctance to engage in such a conversation, one he’s been working hard to avoid.

“I’m just trying to run a good, clean, American restaurant and provide a good meal at a great value,” he said.

While many small businesses are rolling back the protocols, many are not. Ilene Moss of All Things Irish in Coeur d’Alene said even though Panhandle Health’s board ended the mandate, her Sherman Avenue store remains masked.

“We’re still enforcing the masks,” she said. “We’re keeping an eye on things, on the virus. I know a lot of people still haven’t been vaccinated, and we want to make sure we’re keeping our customers and our employees safe.”

Moss said she’s also consulting the calendar for guidance. As events like the Fourth of July, Car d’Lane and the street fair eye potential returns in 2021, All Things Irish might follow suit and relax their protocols, depending on how case counts weather the popular festivities.

“I know there’s not going to be a crystal ball that will tell us when it’s time,” she said. “But we still have plenty of customers that really appreciate that we require masks.”

Idaho’s health authorities, meanwhile, urge businesses to lean toward procedures like All Things Irish and err on the side of caution.

“It is still our recommendation to follow all precautions: Masks in public, physical distancing, washing hands, staying home when sick and receiving a vaccine,” Katherine Hoyer, public information officer for Panhandle Health, told the Coeur d’Alene Press.

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare echoed similar comments, saying that — while the department will continue to offer resources to help businesses navigate through the pandemic — their recommendations are just that: recommendations.

"Health and Welfare’s primary role in the community is to promote public health and provide services and oversight to promote healthy people, safe children, and stable families,” Zachary Clark, public information officer for Health and Welfare, told The Press.

“The Idaho Department of Commerce and the Governor’s Office have taken numerous steps to support businesses throughout the pandemic by expanding access to [personal protective equipment] and offering other grants and programs to ensure they have the resources to operate safely.”

But many businesses have blended the precautions of the past with the freedoms of the future. On Prairie Avenue, where the north end of Coeur d’Alene crosses over to the south side of Hayden, Prairie Animal Hospital’s employees all remain masked. For that matter, so did the customers.

Signs in front of parking stalls mark curbside service. Amanda Dillbeck, director of marketing and communications for the popular veterinary clinic, was fully masked and gloved when she offered to shake this reporter’s hand, a sign the business was trending toward normal.

“Our mission is to improve the human-animal bond through exceptional and individualized health care experiences to both the clients and their pets,” Dillbeck said. “We have modified and will continue to modify protocols based on the conditions of the local environment and needs of our clients and staff. We respect an individual’s choice in how they are responding to the pandemic and will work to supply them with responsible options that will allow them and their pet to seek the medical care they need in an environment that they are comfortable with.”

Those options today include curbside — and, for that matter, “vetside,” as Dillbeck coined — masks and PPE. Those options are in stark contrast to this time last year, when Prairie Animal Hospital joined almost every small business during the early days of the pandemic by closing to the public altogether, relying on that curbside option as a measure of last resort.

“As the year progressed, we adapted our protocols to best serve the needs of our clients, and the safety of both clients and staff,” Dillbeck said. “We are currently operating closer to 'normal' but still with modified safety protocols in place.”

As local small businesses decide on their own to keep, curtail or cut the protocols, larger companies operating in North Idaho are still following a safer route. Walmart, Target, Fred Meyer, Starbucks and McDonalds are but a few of the many corporations still following the steps to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, including the maintaining of protective barriers, socially distanced dining tables and the requirement that all employees continue to wear masks.

“We will continue to make proactive decisions that are grounded in transparency and science,” Starbucks said in a statement. “Store partners are equipped with the tools and resources they need to adjust their stores' operations and procedures as needed as we all navigate this dynamic situation. We continue to closely monitor guidance from local and national health authorities and will update our store procedures to adhere to the most effective health and safety standards.”

Some customers agree. Jacob Pratt of Coeur d’Alene spent part of his Monday shopping Riverstone’s stores. He said continuing to wear masks has less to do with mandates or protocols and more to do with ethical responsibilities to one another.

“For me, personally, I don’t think the masks should go away,” he said. “Because even if they figure out 10 years from now the masks didn’t do anything to help, at least we were trying. That’s just my opinion. I think we should keep them on until we get the vaccine distributed more thoroughly.”

His friend, Jacob Ely, held a slightly different view. Like many young shoppers, the Coeur d’Alene resident knows what it’s like to be both a consumer and a frontline employee.

“I work in a gas station,” he said. “Most of the time, we’re not wearing masks. So I think it’s a good thing that we’re getting back to where we were, so long as the numbers don’t spike back up.”

Should the COVID-19 numbers spike, small businesses like Le Peep say they’re prepared. While they’ve laid COVID-19 to rest, ownership says, the masks aren’t exactly buried.

“We still have masks handy,” Kemp said. “If we have a customer that tells us they’d be more comfortable with their waiter wearing a mask, we’ll gladly put it on. And we’ve had a few customers who’ve asked if we had any isolated tables available. I had to tell them, ‘I’m sorry, but we really don’t. We’re going back to normal.’ And we are. It’s full steam ahead.”

While Moss said she isn’t ready to follow such a path, the staff at All Things Irish agree a return to normal is long overdue.

“I’d like to see things get back to normal, for everybody’s sake,” she said. “For everybody’s mental health, and for our physical health. I don’t think there’s enough science out there for us to say it’s safe yet. But I look forward to the day we can say it’s safe.”