By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Bowling Green is looking for ways to help businesses provide safer spaces as they open up – including allowing more outdoor dining at local restaurants.
The city is offering restaurants the opportunity to put tables out on public sidewalks, and in their private parking lots.
“All along the mayor has been asking the staff to think outside the box,” to find ways to help businesses maintain safety as they open, Assistant Municipal Administrator Joe Fawcett said Tuesday morning.
On Friday, restaurants and bars in Ohio are permitted to open for outdoor dining. On May 21, they will be able to open for dine-in services.
Today is also the opening day for personal care services such as hair salons, barbershops, day spas, nail salons, and tanning facilities.
During this morning’s weekly conference call with county officials on the coronavirus, a Tontogany official inquired about how villages go about allowing outdoor dining at restaurants.
Bowling Green Municipal Administrator Lori Tretter offered to send information to other communities interested in opening up outdoor dining options.
City officials in BG are relaxing permit standards, allowing downtown restaurants to put tables out on sidewalks, as long as a walkway is maintained. The restaurants have to fill out a permit form – but the normal fee will be waived, Fawcett said.
For restaurants elsewhere in the city with their own private parking lots, the city is relaxing parking standards to allow for tables to be set up in the lots. The restaurants just have to submit a sketch of the planned arrangements, Fawcett said.
To help businesses, the city has also taken steps to halt utility shut-offs due to non-payment, have set up reserved on-street parking for carry-out business, and have provided revolving loans for local businesses, Fawcett said.
City officials are working closely with the Bowling Green economic development office on how to support the community in light of COVID-19.
“We agreed that one of the biggest hurdles we face is ensuring that people feel safe to go to work and safe to come out and support businesses throughout our community,” said Kati Thompson, new director of the economic development office. “We’ve developed a campaign to not only send a clear, consolidated message throughout the community, but also to provide some basic resources to businesses.”
The campaign is titled #movingforwardBG. This week, City Council members and Thompson will be visiting businesses to pass out floor decals for social distancing, posters and yard signs. A banner will be hung over Main Street with the message: “We are open. We are safe. We are strong. We are #movingforwardBG.”
The campaign purpose is to align the business community and Bowling Green residents in safe ways to interact with one another.
“We hope to bridge the gap between residents and businesses – providing information, education, resources and camaraderie. Although we’re starting this initiative to strengthen our local economy after COVID-19, this will pave the way for future communication from our office to the community,” Thompson said. “Our hope is that the community sees a clear message wherever they go — the bank, their place of work, their dentist, their favorite restaurant, etc.”
As more businesses open up, people need to remember the coronavirus still exists, according to Wood County Health Commissioner Ben Batey.
“The risks are still there,” he said during the conference call with county officials this morning.
But he repeated Gov. Mike DeWine’s belief on Ohio’s re-opening for business.
“We’re looking to prove we can do two things at once,” Batey said.
Right now Ohio has a relatively low spread rate for the virus. “The concern is after we open things up and people get together,” he said.
Tontogany Village Council member Matt Shanahan asked about the need for people to both wear masks and maintain social distancing. Batey described both practices as providing “layers of protection.”
“We’ll continue to work to get that message out there,” Batey asid.
Batey predicted several businesses will be creating new barriers to separate people.
“We’re going to see a lot of plexiglass in businesses,” he said.
Bowling Green City Council President Mark Hollenbaugh said city officials are encouraging people to take both steps of masking up and maintaining distance between others. He doesn’t expect council to take any official action to make masks mandatory or to ask the police division to get involved.
Hollenbaugh is asking that people just do the right thing.
“There seems to be some type of rebellion against wearing masks,” he said. “It’s in your own self interest. It just makes sense.”
Hollenbaugh said his profession has made him cautious about society easing up on safety measures while the risks are still present.
“I’m very worried. I’m a history teacher,” he said.
Also during this morning’s conference call, State Sen. Theresa Gavarone, R-Bowling Green, said efforts are being made at the state level to get CARES money to local governments – and to loosen up the strings attached to make it more flexible so communities can use it as needed.
“We want to get some of those restrictions lifted,” Gavarone said.
She also talked about the need to open up the state safely. “So that we never have to shut down again. I don’t want to see a second wave.”
Wood County Emergency Management Agency Director Jeff Klein talked about the importance of local officials conveying accurate information about COVID-19.
“There’s a lot of information out there,” Klein said, and much of it is not true. So it’s very important that people in positions of authority present real information, he said.
