It's been one year since Iowa first declared a state of emergency due to COVID-19, shutting down bars and indoor dining at restaurants.
That order came on St. Patrick's Day of 2020, and only gave two hours notice for taverns and restaurants to shut down or transition to curbside service. "We just cooked off 100 pounds of corned beef. What the heck are we going to do with this?" Haller's Bar and Grill owner PJ McKasson said about that night.
McKasson had purchased the business only three months prior to the COVID shutdown. "It's been family owned for over 42 years now," McKasson said, adding he's the third generation in his family to run Haller's.
He said the past year has been difficult and costly, but he managed to keep his business afloat. He said he even used the time the building was closed to the public to renovate.
He said things are improving but still not back to where they were prior to the pandemic.
"There's still things here or there that's not exactly how it used to be. It's going to take a while," McKasson said.
He also said he still has trouble with what he calls "rolling shortages" of some products for the restaurant. He said has been able to make do by substituting items on his menu when he has to.
The switch to take-out food didn't hurt as much for Chase Gibb, who owns The Buffalo and Coal Haus 337 restaurants. He said they had already been focusing on carry-out service and were able to transition easily, though there was still some uncertainty.
"You don't know if people are going to just kill the shelves at Hy-Vee and Wal-Mart and go home and not leave," he said about the early days of the shutdown.
Gibb said he was lucky and had good relationships with his suppliers so he wasn't affected by the food shortages that left area grocery stores nearly empty one year ago.
Gibb said one of his biggest challenges was getting people to come back to work once the restaurant was allowed to reopen.
"At that point, [people] are sitting at home making an extra $2400 in unemployment that they generally wouldn't make. I wouldn't go back to work either. I don't blame them a bit," Gibb said, adding it's an issue he's still dealing with at his four restaurants.
Both business owners were able to pull through the year. Gibb said it was due to support from the "tight-knit community." He said the community donated more than $8,000 last spring to purchase meals for healthcare workers and first responders after a Facebook post that went locally-viral.
One year later, COVID cases are down in Des Moines County, and St. Patrick's Day looked very different for taverns and restaurants. Iowa no longer has restrictions on indoor dining or gatherings, although the Governor's latest emergency proclamation encourages businesses to take "reasonable precautions" to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Des Moines County Public Health Director Christa Pogemiller said she thinks the state is headed in the right direction.
"As the vaccine becomes more and more accessible I think that will help with the herd immunity,” she said.
Pogemiller says COVID cases are down dramatically from last fall, but still encourages people to stick to basic mitigation strategies. According to the Iowa COVID-19 website, Des Moines County's 7-day positivity rate continues to decline, and as of March 18th, is at 2.6%.
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