Small Businesses Concerned About COVID-19 Restrictions

The owners voiced their concerns at the Frederick County Council Meeting Tuesday night

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frederick, MD (KB) Tuesday night’s Frederick County Council Meeting heard public comments from local small business owners. Danny Farrar, a business owner, is part of a group of 500 local businesses who call themselves “Bear the Burden.” He spoke about the COVID-19 restrictions on small businesses.

“Our small businesses are being absolutely destroyed, while at the same time, large corporations — Walmart, Home Depot, Target — are recording record profits,” said Farrar. “The reality is, our Rainy Day Fund was meant for downturns, it was not meant for five months with zero revenue, and its been exhausted.”

Farrar advocated for the large corporations to operate under the same restrictions as small businesses.

“Please, when applying limits to capacity and restrictions on business, they must be shared equally,” said Farrar.

Farrar also noted that these small businesses will not survive another lockdown.

Just last week, the Frederick County Council, meeting as the Board of Health, passed a regulation limiting indoor restaurants and personal services to operate at 50% capacity.

At a press conference Tuesday, Governor Larry Hogan put additional restrictions targeting restaurants and bars. They all must close at 10PM.

Councilman, Jerry Donald, said that the decisions made by the Board of Health are unpopular, but necessary.

“I realize this is hard for people — it’s hard for us, it’s hard for everybody,” said Donald. “I hope that we can get through this together making the best decisions we can. I understand they’re not popular decisions all the time, but they’re the decisions we have to make to try to keep people alive and not sick,” he concluded.