By Austin Rust-
On Sunday, March 22, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, Lt. Governor Jon Husted, and Ohio Department of Health (ODH) Director Amy Acton, M.D., MPH announced that a statewide stay-at-home order would go into effect starting March 23 at 11:59 p.m. This order (initially slated to end April 6) asks Ohio residents to limit unnecessary travel and cease non-essential business, effective until May 1. Those who own or are employed at essential businesses have worked through this order, taking on new safety measures and facing some additional stress.
According to Jennifer McCann, co-owner (along with her husband, Harry) of McCann’s Laundry in West Union and Seaman, the stay-at-home order has led to some changes in the day-to-day.
“For the most part, the order seems to have brought some more people into the laundromats – just because they’re concerned about if we’re going to be open the next day, and if they’re going to be able to get their clothes washed when they don’t have the ability to do that at home,” she explained. “We find ourselves in the laundromats cleaning, sanitizing, wiping off knobs, handles, and everything an extra two or three times a day just to make sure that everything is clean.”
“We haven’t really run into anyone who has been sick, but we want to keep everything clean and sanitized with commercial disinfectant,” McCann continued. “Most of the people that come in do drop off their things and leave, but we have been kind of watching to see if we need to put (social distancing) marks on the floor. We haven’t had to put those on so far, because most people have been really good about respecting everyone else’s space, and we haven’t exceeded our max (safe) capacity (in either location). Having too many people in close contact hasn’t been a problem.”
The max capacity for the larger McCann’s Laundry location in West Union is 25 persons, and the max capacity for the smaller McCann’s Laundry location in Seaman is 14 persons, Mrs. McCann explained. She noted that a large percentage of regular customers are home health care providers who come in to do laundry for their clients. “We’ve noticed probably half to three-quarters of the people coming in (now) are wearing masks – not everyone, but most people,” McCann added.
The McCanns are able to operate their laundry business by themselves, Mrs. McCann explained, meaning that no other employees are required to stay in the laundromats full-time. Laundry soap and vending machines are purchased through a vendor in Cincinnati; cleaning supplies (and any other items) needed in recent weeks have been purchased by the McCanns at Sam’s Club.
“We bought two pop machines, and we were having vending machines repaired before this all started,” said Mrs. McCann. “We already had the machines in place in Waynesville, but the vendor had to hold them for three few weeks until they were cleared for delivery. The county they were in had a lot more cases of COVID-19 than Adams County, so we had to wait three additional weeks to have those (vending machines) delivered to us once they were repaired.”
When asked if there had been any additional stress while working through the stay-at-home order, Mrs. McCann replied: “Mainly, we just have to kind of rearrange what we normally do day-to-day. We’ve had to kind of postpone a few of our different work-at-home projects so that we could accommodate the cleaning schedule – so we could get over there and clean as much as we wanted to, keep everything up like that. That’s really been the only change – to make sure we keep it extra clean inside, and make sure that everyone keeps on social distancing.”
“I’m kind of hoping that everything will get back to normal,” she said in closing. “Normally, people would bring kids to the laundromat but during this it’s just one person doing the bulk of it. I’m hoping once everyone’s able to get out, the kids will be able to come (again), and things will just get back to normal. Business-wise, we’re down a little bit from our normal profits, but I’m sure that’ll pick up a little. Hopefully we’ll all get back to some sort of a normal routine like we used to have. We’d just like to thank our customers for complying with the Governor’s order – social distancing, only sending one person out, and being really understanding if we have to get in and clean. Our customers have been really accommodating, and we appreciate that a lot.”
According to Jared Hoop, a store manager at Baxla Tractor Sales, which has locations in Seaman, Washington Court House, and Batavia, the stay-at-home order has led to new safety measures.
“Honestly, we’ve stayed busy, but the order has kind of affected a bit of how we do business,” Hoop began. “We’ve been setting some parts outdoors, or having customers prepay for parts, and we’re getting customers to order online, e-sign, and have equipment delivered to their house. There’s a lot less of the personal touch with this COVID-19, I guess, which, as a small business, that is what we focus on – it’s taken a little bit of that away. We have still got our doors open, but we’re preaching the six feet social distancing. It’s kind of changed the ‘handshake’ aspect of our business, so to speak, and it has left a little more distance between us and the customer.”
“The biggest thing for us is just getting used to that social distancing,” Hoop continued. “We’ve stayed steady. The farmers still have to farm, the homeowners still have to mow the yard and that whole piece, so honestly, thus far it has not slowed us down too much. It has just kind of changed our business mentality.” Mr. Hoop explained that he has met one-on-one with employees who are most at-risk (such as those who sell parts and work at reception) to help them keep up-to-date on how best to protect themselves from the virus. These employees are now given hand sanitizer at each of their stations, he added, and cloth masks were made to be given to them. Each day, all three Baxla Tractor Sales stores hold a conference call to discuss their latest practices in staying safe.
When asked if there had been any additional stress while working through the state stay-at-home order, Mr. Hoop replied: “Initially, yes. For instance, one employee took a couple weeks’ worth of leave due to health concerns but he has since come back. Initially, I think it stressed us all out, but I think we’ve kind of adapted to it. I’ve seen the stress level subsiding in this past week, now that they’re saying that the virus has peaked, so hopefully the stress level has reached its peak, too, and is on its way back down. We’ve been able to stay busy and maintain customers, (but) I don’t see us letting down on the social distancing piece for a good while here. That side of (our) business will stay intact until this thing’s over – it will probably be a while until we ease up.”
“Our motto here is ‘Helping You Grow’ – that’s our mission statement,” Hoop concluded. “We are trying to keep that mentality of helping people through this in any possible way that we can, whether it be through setting some parts outside, looking at mobile services available… we are just here to help whoever it may be however we can; hopefully, we can continue to do that.”
