Hometown Christmas cancelled

DAVENPORT – The state imposed Coronavirus restrictions are continuing to have an impact on the Davenport business community, including signaling an uncertain future for the Davenport Chamber of Commerce.

Since March of this year, Gov. Jay Inslee has mandated restrictions on businesses to “slow the spread” of the coronavirus including mandating masks, limiting the number of customers who can be in a business and prohibiting indoor dining. Public meetings were also banned or limited to a certain number of attendees.

The actions have created a depressed business climate in Davenport and one organization, the Davenport Chamber of Commerce, is especially feeling the pinch.

The Davenport Chamber has struggled to find a new president for several years, but the virus restrictions forced the chamber to move into an inactive state back in March. No meetings have been held since then and two major events, Pioneer Days and Hometown Christmas, were both cancelled.

The City of Davenport is a chamber member and city clerk Dave Leath attributes the inability for the chamber to find a president to several factors.

“We don’t have a lot of young people in our area. Most of our population is 65 or older. Our young people leave because they can’t find jobs and if they can they just aren’t interested in these kind of organizations,” Leath noted.

Chamber Treasurer Dick Wandling said the chamber as just “kind of faded.”

“We need somebody to say ‘let’s meet and do something,” he said. “We used to sponsor several events and are looking at what we can still do, but it’s hard to find new leadership.”

Restaurants

under strain

Some of the business community that is feeling a particular strain during the latest round of COVID-19 restrictions are the Davenport restaurants. Gov. Inslee has mandated that restaurants may not offer in-house service until Dec. 14. While most restaurants are trying to offer to-go options, the financial pressure is becoming dire.

The Tribune Smokehouse has reduced its staff to only four employees as it works to provide take-out service. Owner Debbie Brickner said the restaurant utilized government programs offered during earlier shutdowns this year like the Payment Protection Program but she isn’t sure what the future holds.

“We used some of the resources available earlier this year, but we may need them even more this time,” Brickner said. “We are usually closed the last two weeks of December and although the shutdown is supposed to end Dec. 14 we have told our staff not to get their hopes up.”

Edna’s restaurant owner Virginia Fries said the restaurant will continue to offer drive-thru and curbside service, but she is having a hard time finding help that is willing to meet the regulations required to stay open.

“It’s just our family working the restaurant right now and we are getting tired, but we will keep going,” she said. “We are trying to be cautious about our own health, because if one of us goes down, we might have to close.”

Staff at El Ranchito, the Mexican food restaurant in Davenport, said they are also offering to-go service and can accept orders by phone.