Local Business Owners React To Safer At Home Order

WAAY 31's Sydney Martin spoke with a local restaurant about what these lifted restrictions mean for them.

The presidential election.

This morning - governor kay ivey amended the safer at home order.

That included extending the mask order until friday december 11th at 5 p-m.

The order was originally set to expire this sunday.

It will now remain in effect until december 11th.

Ivey said she originally hoped to let the mask order expire at this time -- but that's not possible with current trends in the state.

However -- she says it could soon be up to each person to decide on whether or not they should wear a mask.

There were a few changes made to the safer at home order today that go into effect on sunday.

Stores, gyms and entertainment venues can now operate at full capacity.

Close-contact businesses can also increase capacity as long as people are wearing masks and are separated by plexi-glass.

State health officer doctor scott harris says that even though the capacity restriction was lifted -- business should still take other coronavirus precautions like mantaining social distancing and increased cleaning-efforts.

Waay 31's sydney martin spoke with a local restaurant about what these lifted restrictions mean for them.

Drake's in huntsville is one restaurant that's very happy about the governor's changes.

They told me the new order will help not only employees but also reduce wait times for customers.

Lucien desselle, drake's general manager, "we were hoping that this was something that was going to be coming eventually and now that it has we can definitely start opening up our inside restaurant to 100% capacity."

Lucien desselle is the general manager at drake's in huntsville.

He told me the restaurant installed plexiglass barriers at every table in the back of the restaurant months ago- to be prepared if and when capacity limits were lifted and staff could return to normal shifts lucien desselle, drake's general manager, "it pretty much eliminated one whole section for our service staff.

So we had to eliminate one serve per shift.

Which definitely hurts them and our restaurant."

Desselle explained they've seen the wait time creep up to about 40 minutes on some nights because of the blocked off tables... lucien desselle, drake's general manager, "even 4,5,6 more tables are going to allow for people to come in and have less people on wait keep our wait time shorter."

And he said the plexiglass barriers are something the restaurant plans to keep in place.

Lucien desselle, drake's general manager, you actually don't even notice that they're there.

They're translucent so sometimes if you don't even know you might bump into it a little bit."

Now, desselle told me they already have dividers for the bar seating at the restaurant ready to install..so they're hoping to have the bar back up to full capacity soon.

Live in huntsville sm waay 31 news.