MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – With the fall return of WVU students looming, Morgantown area business owners are very very concerned about another, possibly longer COVID-related business shutdown.
During the Mon County commission meeting today a handful of business owners said when students return to campus it’s not a matter of if there is another coronavirus outbreak and government ordered shutdown, but when.
Classics 3 Restaurant and Bar has operated in several locations in the Morgantown area for 40 years and owner Louis Scotchel says his chances of surviving what he believes will be another shutdown due to an outbreak will be slim.
“All that extra money that was given out is gone,”Scotchel said,”We have no choice, if you shut us down again we’re done, there’s no way we’re going to able to survive this.”
Owner of the Mason Jar Restaurant and Catering, Steve Reese says bringing students back to campus from all over the country in the fall will, in his opinion lead to an outbreak that will cause a government shutdown.
“We wish that WVU not came back to session this fall, hopefully they’ll move it to spring,” Reese said,”Because we’re afraid the governor is going to close us clear down when our numbers go up and if you bring that many students back to this county there’s no choice for those numbers to go up and we cannot win that battle.”
Owner of the Gold and Blue Restaurant, Louis Scotchel Snr. told commissioners what will happen when the students return is obvious in his opinion.
“Those kids are not going to be responsible, we were kids and knew how invincible we felt no matter who we were,”Scotchel Snr. said,”You never think you’re going to sick enough to hurt anything.”
Reese says the COVID statistics are inaccurate in many cases and cause hysteria in the community.
“We gotta be accurate with what we’re putting out, we can’t be scaring our community to death. We all rely on this community to survive,” Reese said,”Now, the government is targeting us, this whole county is being targeted.”
Commissioner Tom Bloom told business owners WVU officials and the governor’s office have been in talks about the fall return of students.
“With the WVU students we’re going to see what happens because I know they’re talking to the governor at this time,” Bloom said,”Everything is open.”
Commissioners also voted unanimously to return the county portion of the hotel/motel tax to the Visit Mountaineer Country Convention and Visitor’s Bureau for the next three months. Commission president Ed Hawkins says they will review the allocation at the end of the three month period.