Restaurant and Bar Shutdown

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – Ohio Governor Mike DeWine issued a ban on in-person dining at all restaurants and bars in Ohio. The ban began at 9 p.m. Sunday.

DeWine says the ban will reduce the risk of furthering COVID-19 but the ban will also affect local and small businesses. WHIZ asked Jim Watson, owner of The Barn how it will affect him and his employees.

“Uhm I definitely have a huge concern about the decision to put a ban on restaurants and bars just from a financial standpoint. Not only me personally but the industry in general. There are so many people that are dependent upon this industry whether it’s from owners or corporate entities to what’s more important, the individuals who are out doing the actual work; the servers and the bartenders and the cooks and the chefs and the managers… Definitely I think hopefully that the government is working on some type of subsidy to replace some of the income that’s going to be missing.”

Watson says that he is looking into getting his employees the chance to work in carryout and delivery. He also took notice of the flood of customers who came in to The Barn after the ban was announced, and wanted to give thanks.

“One thing I would like to say is thank you to our community we’ve had since this has been announced. It looks like we have been flooded with a lot of our customers, our regular customers as well as customers that we see from time to time. They’ve been in here really to support my servers and bartenders.”

Watson also wanted to make it clear that the health and safety of his customers and employees was his top priority.