Gov. Greg Abbott’s stay-at-home directive expires today (Thursday, April 31), and in a Monday afternoon news conference, Abbott announced that he would allow the state’s businesses to reopen in phases beginning on Friday.

In the first phase of the governor’s plan, retail stores, restaurants, movie theatres, and malls will be allowed to resume business, but will be restricted to 25 percent capacity. Museums and libraries may also reopen while maintaining only 25 percent capacity, but hands-on exhibits will remain closed.

In rural counties with five or fewer cases—which presently includes Hemphill County—Gov. Abbott allowed businesses to reopen businesses at 50 percent capacity.

Abbott’s announcement came as the pace of the virus’ spread slowed in Texas, but the number of positive coronavirus cases continued to rise. An additional 874 cases statewide were announced the day after the press conference, with two new counties reporting their first cases, and more than 80 percent of Texas counties having reported at least one case.

In the Texas Panhandle, the number of COVID-19 cases accelerated rapidly this week, topping 1,000. Amarillo alone accounted for 630 of those, while Moore County—a coronavirus hotspot—had reached 294 reported cases and three deaths by Tuesday.

In Ochiltree County, which reported its first virus-related death last week, the count rose rapidly from one case last week to 24 this week. Wheeler County had reported five positive COVID-19 cases by noon Tuesday, while Lipscomb County reported its first.

By noon on Tuesday, the Texas Department of State Health Services had confirmed 26,171 cases of the coronavirus in the state, with 690 reported deaths and 1,682 patients hospitalized. Only 300,384 tests had been administered—barely more than 1 percent of Texas’ nearly 29 million residents.

The Record contacted several local business owners following Gov. Abbott’s announcement in an effort to gauge their response. Of those who had closed their doors or reduced their service to drive-thru or curbside, most were content to wait it out a while longer.

THE PALACE THEATRE

Although phase one of Gov. Abbott’s plan to reopen Texas businesses includes movie theatres, Palace Theatre owners Ray Weeks and Natalie Pino are taking a pass this time around. “We are not going to open May 1,” Weeks said on Tuesday. “We are going to keep doing curbside.”

The Palace’s curbside concession service from 5-9 pm each day has become pretty popular for folks who want to pick up popcorn and snacks before going home to watch a movie, or for anyone who has a hankering for a movie theatre hot dog as a healthy alternative to cooking dinner.

“So far, the people we’ve talked to have been super-supportive,” Weeks said. “They all ask us if we’re going to open. I just tell them, ‘No, not right now, cause we just don’t think it’s safe.’ I don’t think we’ve seen what’s going to happen here, yet, and what makes me nervous is that everyone else is getting sorta’ chill about it.”

Other area theatre owners have contacted Weeks and Pino to ask what they are doing. Most agreed that they didn’t feel it was safe, either.

Among the quandaries theatre owners face is the cost and availability of cleaning supplies. “Right now, we can’t get paper towels, toilet paper, Clorox wipes, or Lysol,” Weeks said. “We could spend $50 for cleaning supplies even if we only have 10 people come.”

“It’s not that we don’t want to be open,” Weeks said, “but in my opinion, this is one of the hardest places to keep clean. You come into a movie theatre and you touch everything. Kids are 100 times worse. They mess with everything ... the chicken machine, the bathroom. We’ve even had kids leave mouth prints on the concession stand glass.”

Weeks said he and Pino considered several other factors in their decision not to reopen yet.

First, he said, “This is a great theatre, and people from out of town do tend to come here. We don’t want to bring the virus in.”

Second, the distributors aren’t releasing new movies, at this point, and some of the release dates of the real summer blockbusters have been kicked back to 2021. “They have packages of older ones that you can buy,” he said. “But again, we don’t want to risk anybody’s health to watch Fast and Furious 5 or The Expendables.”

Third, Weeks said, “We live here. All the recommendations are that you should make sure your home is a safe space and you keep it sanitized. If we have people coming in and out, we can’t do that.”

Weeks and Pino both acknowledged the remarkable support they have received from the community, which has taken some of the pain out of having to close their business temporarily. “The community support has been amazing ... not just for us, but across the board here in Canadian,” Weeks said.

ALEXANDER’S GROCERY & DELI

Tim and Betsy Alexander, co-owners of Alexander’s Grocery and Deli, had been doing a booming business until April 2, when the first positive coronavirus test was announced in Hemphill County. The next day, Alexander’s locked their front doors and restricted service to their drive-thru window.

By its very nature, though, the window creates a bottleneck for customers, whose cars regularly line the building perimeter during the busy lunch hour. “With the drive-thru,” Alexander said, “we can handle about 60-70 percent of walkthrough. It’s exhausting, and it is stressful, getting their orders right, and making them wait.”

Their customers tend not to complain, though. Most just express their gratitude to the Alexanders for remaining open. And although Alexander knows some of his business is being syphoned off by other stores that have remained open, he is convinced he made the right decision—both for their customers and the staff.

“It’s stressful on me as a business owner,” Alexander said, “but also on my employees. We just do the best we can with the CDC recommendations.”

Last week, in anticipation of Gov. Abbott’s first phase of business reopenings, “We put shields in front of the registers and tape on the floor [to maintain distance between customers],” Alexander said. “I told my staff, ‘If you don’t want to work, it’s OK. Just tell me.’”

But then news arrived of a spike in positive coronavirus cases in nearby Perryton, and it stopped him cold. “I’m ready to open,” he said, “but if my people are uneasy, I don’t want to. The lumber yard, the tire shop, Allsup’s, Dollar General...they haven’t shut down. I closed because I felt it was the right thing to do. I’ll reopen when I feel like it’s the right thing to do.”

On Wednesday morning, Tim texted The Record to say that he had decided to open that afternoon, “and see how it goes.”

SALON ON MAIN

Stefanie Peterson at Canadian’s Salon on Main said she and her coworkers spent the day Sunday preparing for what they hoped would be a Friday reopening, only to learn that it will have to wait until sometime in mid-May.

“I think the first thing I started to do was look into Oklahoma’s and Georgia’s guidelines for opening and operations,” Peterson said. “They basically said to make sure you arrive early to pre-sanitize everything, and have one client in at a time. Wear a mask and have the clients wear one also, and have enough hand sanitizer for everyone.”

“We also need extra capes because we usually can use a cape a few times, and with all this, we can’t,” she said. “I started to stock up on gloves, barbicide disinfectant, masks, hand sanitizer, and capes. These things are hard to find, and I knew it would be even harder once [the governor] said we can open.”

Peterson said she and her coworkers went to work Sunday and started deep-cleaning and rearranging the shop ensure that there was room to keep everyone 6 feet apart. “I was going to go tomorrow and finish getting everything ready,” she said Tuesday, “but with the upsetting news yesterday, I have plenty of time now.”

Peterson is far from ready to give up, though. “We are stocked up on everything,” she said, “and I feel completely confident that on the 18th, if [Gov. Abbott] does let us open, we will be more than ready to work in a safe manner.”

When they do open, she said, they plan to post signs asking clients not to enter if they have any symptoms of the virus. They will also ask all clients to wait in their vehicles until they are waved in. “That way, we have time to properly disinfect between each client,” Peterson said.

Just for the record, though, “Even before we got shut down, we slowed down the number of people allowed in at one time, and we actually were already doing everything that most states are requiring,” Peterson said. “I really wish [the governor] would leave the rural community’s fate in the hands of the county officials, even if he made them have a board with the hospital officials on it to help with the opening or closing of businesses.”

“What’s that saying...Life isn’t fair?” she concluded. “Well, this is one of those lessons.”

COMMUNITY CHURCHES

Although churches were allowed to stay open through the pandemic, many put their services on hold—including those in Canadian. In Monday’s announcement, Gov. Abbott allowed churches to expand their capacity even more, as long as they follow social-distancing practices.

First Baptist Church Pastor Matt Phenix reported on Tuesday that, despite being allowed to open on Sunday, most of Canadian’s church leaders were waiting until May 10, at the earliest—and probably even longer. “Most, overall, are looking at opening the 17th—if, and for most of us, only if cases do not rise in the county.”

NOTES FROM THE CHAMBER

In other opening versus closing notes from Chamber of Commerce Director Jackie McPherson:

•Dian Williams with W-4 Services reported that their office has reopened.

•Canadian Carpet Care owner Tamara Walser reported they are doing business as usual.

•Stumblin’Goat Saloon owners Milton and Julie Cooke said their plan is to reopen that business in Phase 2 of Gov. Abbott’s plan which—barring any acceleration of virus outbreaks—is scheduled for May 18.

•Canadian Restaurant owner Carla Evans is reopening her business on Friday. Seating will be limited to 50 percent capacity. Neither the salad bar nor the buffet will be available at this time, and smoking is no longer allowed.

•Wendy Wright at the River Valley Pioneer Museum reported that, while their exhibit space remains closed, online sales from their gift shop—which has a variety of offerings from historic photos and books to RVPM tumblers and 47-inch plush rattlesnakes—are available 24/7 (www.canadiantx.org). Curbside pickup of purchases is available Monday through Friday.

•Hemphill County Library plans to reopen its doors on Monday, May 4. Patrons will be directed to use the 5th Street entrance, capacity will be restricted to five people on each floor at any one time, and social distancing will be expected. Curbside/outside cart pickup will still be provided for those who prefer it, and the book drop is available for returns 24 hours a day.

•Kate Estrada, owner of Stitch on Main Street, is informally open Facebook and welcomes phone calls from customers who need something. Kate said, rather than open her doors to customers immediately, she is “waiting it out for a minute” to see what happens next. “This is in the beginning stages,” she said. “I don’t think any of us know what’s coming. I’m a little surprised they’re already opening things up.”