Can’t follow coronavirus guidelines? Then stay closed, Beaufort leaders urge businesses
Beaufort businesses that can’t ensure guidelines are followed to prevent spreading the coronavirus should consider staying closed through May, city leaders said Tuesday.
The request comes as other cities weight additional rules for stores as some businesses reopen following S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster’s order last week.
Bluffton Town Council considered sweeping new rules requiring shoppers to wear masks and stores to follow a list of guidelines in order to remain open, with violators punished by up to a $100 fine. Council members ultimately dropped the idea as too burdensome and will consider a new approach Thursday.
“Their council members felt presumably like most of us in we really don’t want to be ordering people around,” Beaufort Mayor Billy Keyserling said during a virtual meeting Tuesday. “We don’t really want people to misunderstand and think that we have authority that we constitutionally do not have, but that we remain concerned.”
In Charleston, business owners will have to post a sign with the number of people allowed in the store at a time and have an employee track the number of customers to follow McMaster’s guidelines of no more than five customers per 1,000 square feet, The Post and Courier reported.
A resolution passed by Beaufort City Council on Tuesday asks businesses and customers to adhere to the governor’s orders and consider remaining closed if the safety measures McMaster mandated can’t be met or until the orders are lifted. There’s no enforcement or penalty attached to the document.
“I have two small businesses, both of them have almost no income coming in,” Councilman Stephen Murray said. “I’m a little sensitive to putting additional burdens on a small business community that will be trying to reopen over the coming months. At the same time, we want to encourage residents to stay home, to social distance, to follow the protocol to wear a mask if you go out, because we are not through the woods yet.”
McMaster last week allowed some businesses deemed nonessential to reopen, including department stores, furniture stores, book shops and jewelry sellers. City officials on Wednesday announced efforts to help business owners navigate available federal relief as they begin to reopen.
Nan Sutton, a council member who owns a gift shop on Bay Street, said she is requiring customers who enter to wear masks. But for the most part, people are still avoiding going out, she said.
Five new corornavirus cases in Beaufort County were reported by state health officials Tuesday, bringing the total for the county to 269. Of those, 10 people have died.
“It is still with us,” Sutton said. “I think people get that, and I think they are going to continue to be pretty careful.”
