Nonessential businesses in Sumter spend last day open before shutdown

McMaster's order took effect Wednesday in S.C.

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Lee Burgess, owner of Undisputed Barber and Beauty Design, was still trimming hair for his customers on Wednesday.

Knowing he had to close his shop at the end of the day because the governor ordered nonessential businesses to close by 5 p.m. Wednesday because of COVID-19 didn't make him happy. To Burgess and his employees, the barber shop isn't considered a nonessential business.

"Personal image is essential. It is essential for some people," Burgess said. "I think we are essential because people are already out of work."

Burgess said he doesn't think it's fair to him or his employees, as they have bills to pay, families to feed and clients still requesting their services.

"It's uncertain because you don't know how long it's going to be," Burgess said. "It's rough."

With barber shops and beauty salons being hands-on jobs, many states have considered the job nonessential and another way for others to spread COVID-19.

Debbie Quick, owner of Availeth Spa Salon, was doing her best to keep her staff and clients healthy and comfortable throughout the virus outbreak, keeping her salon open until the governor said differently.

"We will be abiding by the governor's orders, and we will be closing our doors a little bit before 5 p.m.," said Debbie Quick's daughter and artistic director, Tiffany Quick, on Wednesday afternoon. "We will be waiting until he allows us to open back up."

While some businesses continued to serve the Sumter community as long as they could, some salon owners acted ahead of the governor's order and closed their shops last week.

Louie Brown, owner of The Venue, closed his hair salon March 24 following the closures of other salons across the U.S.

"Touching people, there's no way you can do a social distancing with that," Brown said. "Until everybody kind of gets on board and stops this for a couple of weeks to let this slow down, it's not going to do any good."

Brown said he thinks salons are essential, but their services aren't essential during a health crisis like this.

Thinking about his employees, Brown said he's having his staff claim unemployment for the time being. He's also working to give his staff a zero-interest loan until everything gets back to normal.

"It's devastating to all of us. There's a lot of people in the same boat," Brown said. "Our health is so much more important than our income at this moment."

Brown wasn't the only one who wanted to get ahead of the game. Mary Bullard, a partner at Salon MarZell, closed her salon March 27 after taking extra precautions became too difficult to stay open.

"We felt like we worked very diligently to keep the salon sanitized even more than we normally do," Bullard said. "We decided for our own safety and our clients and our staff that we needed to go ahead and make that decision on our own because it was getting more and more difficult to social distance as time went on."

Bullard said the staff was on board about temporarily shutting down. With the amount of traffic going in and out of Salon MarZell each day, she said, there was no telling who had COVID-19 or not, and they didn't want to add more worry if they could help it.

"Most of our customers have been appreciative and very understanding," Bullard said. "We've had a positive response to closing."

Besides close-contact service providers, entertainment venues were ordered to close, which includes movie theaters, bowling alleys, performing arts centers, arcades and more. It also includes venues operated by social clubs, such as rotary clubs.

The Sumter Rotary Club took the initiative to postpone its meetings long before McMaster announced the executive order. David Sanders, president of the Sumter Rotary Club, said members agreed to the postponement once McMaster requested there be no group gatherings of more than three people, as did the other clubs in Sumter.

"Our last meeting we had was on March 9," Sanders said. "We decided to postpone all March meetings, and now, of course, we decided to postpone all April meetings until further notice."

The club continues to stay in touch virtually and help the community as much as they can while following the order's guidelines.

"We are a service club. I think we are essential to our community, but we understand getting in large groups of people right now is not recommended to stall the spread of the virus," Sanders said. "From that point, we understand."

In the executive order, McMaster also ordered fitness centers to close, but the Sumter YMCA had already suspended its operations on March 18 through April.

"We find ourselves kind of in a strange place, different from what we would normally do," Sumter YMCA CEO John Hoffman said. "During a time of crisis, I can understand why we get labeled nonessential."

With YMCA being a nonprofit, the local facility has asked its members to continue paying their membership dues amid its suspension. Hoffman said membership dues are how they are able to operate the facility and pay employees.

Since the facility closed, Hoffman said it continued to pay part-time employees throughout the end of March, but the Y is still continuing full-time staff's work by cleaning the facility and helping other local nonprofits throughout this time of hardship in the community.

"The Y is actually going to be called upon to serve in different capacities than what we normally would," Hoffman said.

On Monday, April 6, the Sumter YMCA will hold a blood drive for the American Red Cross in the facility, according to Hoffman. The facility will also hold a second blood drive later in April. Hoffman said the Y will also start being a food drop-off point for Sumter United Ministries.

"We're going to be here, not only through this thing, but on the back side of this thing, ready to serve however we need to," Hoffman said. "Overall, Sumter has always kind of been a Y town, and during this time, we're proud to say the Sumter community is still sticking with us."