Local Business Owner Excited to See Mandates About to End
YAKIMA, Wash - Four weeks from today, you can go into stores, restaurants and bars in the Yakima Valley without wearing a mask.
Monday afternoon Action News spoke to Wendy King, owner of the Little Hopper, and she says she and fellow business owners she's talked to are excited for this.
King says this will allow business owners more freedom and have more customers come to their place.
"It greatly enables the customers to come and go, up and down, and move around and not, again have that frustration level of 'oops where's my mask?' And it takes the pressure of the brewers and the wineries and the people working there that have to make sure that those masks are in place," King said.
King says right now because of the mandate, it limits how many people can be on her 14-seat buses.
Groups of passengers still must maintain a six-foot social distance.
She says this can make it difficult for a single passenger to join in one of their tours.
"We sell single tickets on brewery tours, and we're developing winery tours and restaurant tours, and some hop farm tours and we want to enable people to purchase one, two and three tickets so that allows us to fill a bus with perhaps three or four different groups," King said.
We reached out to you our viewers on our Facebook page and while some are okay with still having to mask up when going to a local store, bar or restaurant, others want the mandates to end immediately.
One viewer questions Gov. Jay Inslee’s decision to keep the indoor mandate through March 21, saying, "What difference is four weeks going to make? What science is he using for this decision?"
However, another viewer tells Action News, "Been doing it all along in stores, on the bus ... Nothing is going to change in my life”.
King says lifting the mandate will make her job much easier.
"We can allow tourists and locals to again enjoy the breweries, the wineries, the local restaurants and all the other craft beverage locations," King said.
After March 21, local businesses can still require customers to wear a mask if they choose to implement a policy.
