Back in business

Allie Swan opened her own barbershop in August in large part because she yearned to be free from having to wear a face mask.

Swan, a barber and cosmetologist, had discovered when learning the trades that she was allergic to many of the chemicals used in salons.

“So, COVID-19 is not my first time being masked,” Swan said during an April 24 interview.

The 26-year-old Libby native opened Allilocks Haircuts last summer as a chemicals-free cosmetology and barbershop.

That approach continued when she reopened April 27. But Swan is again wearing a mask — this time to protect herself and her clients. And she is switching her small shop’s emphasis from serving walk-in customers to appointments only.

“Yesterday I had more phone calls than I could even count. People have been very receptive to appointments,” Swan said.

When booking appointments Swan plans to respectfully inquire whether the customer is experiencing any symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 and whether they have recently traveled.

On April 22, Gov. Steve Bullock announced strategies and timelines for the phased and conditional reopening of most of the state’s businesses, allowing many to open doors April 27 and others on May 4. Some types of businesses remain closed for the near future.

Swan said she closed Allilocks Haircuts before Bullock’s March 26 directive calling for the temporary shuttering of non-essential businesses.

“I’d had so many cancellations and no walk-ins,” she said.

In Lincoln County people were beginning to exercise “social distancing” even before the phrase became part of the virus vernacular.

And there’s speculation among regional businesspeople that this trend will continue for a time as Lincoln County’s businesses and churches reopen.

Days before COVID-19 restrictions closed Henry’s Restaurant in Libby the eatery witnessed a decline in customers.

The same was true at the Switchback Bar and Grill a few blocks west along U.S. 2.

Fewer people were going out to eat as fears escalated about the novel coronavirus. And those who ventured out to restaurants kept their distance from fellow diners.

Terry Cummings, an owner of Henry’s Restaurant, said he plans to reopen May 4. That’s the date Bullock identified as the earliest for restaurants, bars, breweries and casinos to reopen their doors.

State guidelines for phase one of this sector’s reopening require that customer volume be limited to 50 percent of normal operating capacity to allow for adequate group spacing. And establishments “must provide for six feet of physical distancing between groups and/or tables.”

“That’s no problem if the numbers are the same as before the closing,” Cummings said.

Tori Myers co-owns the Switchback Bar and Grill with her mother, Diana Torgison.

She said the restaurant is weighing its options for complying with the 50 percent of normal operating capacity mandate during phase one.

“We may have to block off every other table,” Myers said.

Like Cummings, she said business might take a while to pick back up.

“It slowed down quite a bit before we shut down,” Myers said.

Switchback used the mandatory shutdown to tackle a major renovation of its kitchen and the construction of an addition providing new office and storage space.

Myers said April 24 that it wasn’t clear yet whether Switchback will reopen May 4 or soon thereafter.

She said the restaurant anticipates its 20 employees will return.

“A lot of them have been with us for years,” Myers said.

Similarly, Cummings said he believes his 12 employees will be back. He said it is his understanding that all but three qualified for unemployment during the shutdown.

Meanwhile, Dr. Brad Black, Lincoln County’s health officer, recommends monthly COVID-19 testing for operators of salons, barbershops, tattoo shops and massage therapy businesses “to protect customers with higher vulnerability.”

Swan said she plans to comply. She said that her grandfather, Lorry Dotson, worked for the W. R. Grace vermiculite mine in Libby and died Feb. 1 of mesothelioma.

The Lincoln County Board of Health noted April 23 that Lincoln County’s population includes more than 3,000 residents who are especially vulnerable to COVID-19 because of asbestos-related pulmonary disease.

Health officials in Lincoln County observed that a phased lifting of restrictions tied to COVID-19 will require vigilance and continued testing.

“As long as we’re testing robustly…we’re always looking for the changing prevalence of the virus in the community,” Black said.

“As we isolate and trace the contacts [of those who test positive for COVID-19], we’ll get an idea of the rapidity of the spread,” Black said. “Tracing and quarantining are going to be key methods of slowing the spread.”

As of April 22, the day Gov. Steve Bullock provided guidance for schools, businesses and churches for a phased reopening, Lincoln County had identified a total of seven people who had tested positive for COVID-19. The county had then tested 649 people. One person, a 77-year-old resident of Bull Lake, died from complications of the respiratory disease.

But Bullock’s latest directive did not provide for the reopening of gyms, pools and hot tubs or other places of assembly, including movie and performance theaters, concert halls, bowling alleys, bingo halls and music halls.

That reality led Liz Whalen, owner of Studio B in Libby, to ask the Lincoln County Board of Health during its April 23 meeting whether there might be an exemption for her business. Among other things, Studio B offers small group exercise classes and personal training.

The business has been holding some exercise classes outside or proving them online during the COVID-19 shutdown.

Mark Peck, a member of the board of health and chairman of the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners, told fellow health board members that it seemed ironic that he could go to the Pastime Bar as of May 4 but not Studio B.

Jan Ivers, chairwoman of the Board of Health, told Whalen to reach out to Bullock’s office for clarity about Studio B’s situation.

Ivers noted that Bullock’s directives allow local health boards to be more restrictive with COVID-19 guidance but not less restrictive.

On April 24, the day after the county’s health board met, Whalen declined additional comment.

Meanwhile, some regional churches reopened April 26 and others were contemplating holding live services again.

Father Richard Kluk of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Libby said he has tentative approval from Helena to hold services again during the weekend of May 2.

Bullock described his strategy for a phased reopening as a first step toward a return to something approaching normalcy. He said individual responsibility — such as good hygiene and adherence to social distancing measures — “remains Montana’s best tool in the fight against new infections” as the state “begins to emerge from its initial encounter with COVID-19.”

For rookie business owners like Allie Swan, that initial encounter wasn’t easy. She said she is grateful for her landlord’s understanding and the assistance of the staff at the Libby Job Service.

“I knew my first year in business was going to be an uphill battle but I didn’t expect a war,” Swan said.