{"id":13386,"date":"2020-03-18T00:05:44","date_gmt":"2020-03-18T06:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=13386"},"modified":"2020-03-18T00:05:44","modified_gmt":"2020-03-18T06:05:44","slug":"wash-up-calm-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2020\/03\/18\/wash-up-calm-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Wash UP! Calm DOWN!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Valley businesses grapple with COVID-19 fallout<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Eric Valentine<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Nearly empty store shelves at Atkinsons\u2019 Market in Bellevue mirror the conditions of most supermarkets across the country. Photo credit: Mandi Iverson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Even before the first cases of the coronavirus in Blaine County had been confirmed, the peaceful confines of this mountain-encircled valley could not firewall the nationwide panic that saw store shelves depleted, airports congested, and a plethora of press releases and memes streamed across social media screens.<\/p>\n

And then, on Friday, it was official: Idaho had its first confirmed case of COVID-19. By Sunday, it was also official, Blaine County had two. As it has been widely reported, the news led to closures and cancellations of every major event in the Valley, including the Sun Valley Film Festival that was slated to start March 18 and the Sun Valley Resort ski season that typically wraps up in mid to late spring. <\/span><\/p>\n

Those are just two examples of how the financial lifeblood of a resort town got sent to limbo. What comes next\u2014not so much in terms of the virus, but rather the economy\u2014has Valley residents pretty riled up.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is in a panic and supplies are low,\u201d Atkinsons\u2019 store manager Tom Pyle said from his Ketchum location. \u201cHopefully, in a week or two, supply can catch up with demand. Right now, we have only 10 percent of the product we should have available.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pyle explained that the distributors simply cannot get enough trucks on the road to meet the sudden spike of demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you order 1,000 cases of something, you might get 500,\u201d Pyle said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The panic was enough to trigger a Monday morning press release titled \u201cSlow It Down, Do Your Part\u201d from Ketchum Mayor Neil Bradshaw. In it, Bradshaw said, \u201cI urge everyone to consider their actions, exposure risk and contagion risk from the perspective of the larger public health impact of a rapid spread of COVID-19, versus a more gradual spread. Medical resources in Blaine County have a better chance of meeting the needs of our valley if the rate of spread is gradual and not rapid. We all can help slow it down. Our efforts in this regard will save lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bradshaw went on to offer a task list residents could take on to help get through these challenging times. The list included these requests:<\/span><\/p>\n

Non-essential businesses should limit operations.<\/p>\n

Restaurants to close or restrict to take-out only.<\/p>\n

Shop thoughtfully. Please leave something on the shelves for others.<\/p>\n

Keep your distance but be there to support your neighbor.<\/p>\n

Monitor your health.<\/p>\n

Be kind to those around you\u2014let us know when you have seen an act of kindness with the hashtag #KetchumKind.<\/p>\n

One industry staying open for now\u2014at least in Idaho\u2014is food services, specifically restaurants, clubs, and bars. Most already run on razor-thin profit margins and are operated by employees who live off tips and work paycheck to paycheck. With the newfound practice of social-distancing, a night out drinking, eating and dancing qualifies as the opposite. Jenni Conrad, owner and director of operations for The Mint in Hailey, says her establishment is doing everything it can to keep things going.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re kind of lucky we have a big restaurant space, so we can keep diners pretty far apart,\u201d Conrad said. \u201cWe\u2019re cleaning every 30 minutes. We\u2019re doing curbside takeout. We\u2019re doing what we can. Our staff is putting on a good face and, fortunately, we\u2019ve had no one sick here. But a half-empty restaurant isn\u2019t what a staff wants to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conrad confirmed that all concerts and events at The Mint have been cancelled through March, but plans are to keep the restaurant going as long as possible and with a likely reduction in hours of operation.<\/p>\n

Conrad said other outside-the-box solutions were being floated, too\u2014for instance, offering gift certificates so that people could make purchases now but patronize an establishment later. In theory, that could help some establishments cover costs while shutdowns are being enacted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got three concerts I\u2019m issuing refunds for right now,\u201d Conrad said. \u201cEvery little bit helps.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Valley businesses grapple with COVID-19 fallout By Eric Valentine Even before the first cases of the coronavirus in Blaine County had been confirmed, the peaceful confines of this mountain-encircled valley could not firewall the nationwide panic that saw store shelves depleted, airports congested, and a plethora of press releases and memes streamed across social media […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13387,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,18,36],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blaine-county","8":"category-news","9":"category-slider"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}