Downtown business owners try to keep smiling amid pandemic - 1736 Magazine, Summer 2020

Marquis Francis looks at the signs on the door as he calls in his lunch order outside Cafe 209 in
downtown Augusta. The restaurant has been closed to dine-in traffic since spring because of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think curbside (pickup) is here to stay;
I think Americans have fallen in love with
it,” Woodard said, adding that she is going
to advocate for an ordinance that would
set aside two parking spaces on each block
of Broad Street for delivery pickup.
The Augusta Commission in June
approved an ordinance allowing downtown
restaurants to expand outdoor
seating beyond their sidewalk footprint
so long as they had permission from the
neighboring property owner and registered
for the $25 permit.
So far, restaurants such as Whiskey
Bar Kitchen have taken advantage of the
additional outdoor seating capacity, which
makes customers feel safer and provides
overflow for dining areas that require
tables be at least six feet apart.
The Augusta Commission also has
approved a measure allowing downtown
business owners to apply for a permit
to temporarily close Broad Street’s side
streets for outdoor drinking and dining.
Similar measures have been passed in
other Georgia cities.
The first test of the local ordinance was
supposed to occur on a section of 10th
Street on Saturday, June 6. The event,
organized by Woodard and downtown
restaurateurs Brad Usry, Sean Wight, Eric
Kinlaw, Allan Soto and bar owner Coco
Rubio, would have put 20 tables on the
street just south of Broad.
However, the event fell through when
the permit was rejected by the Richmond
County Sheriff’s Office, which cited public
safety issues.
Open containers of alcohol are not permitted
on Augusta streets. Drinks in public
can only be consumed at outdoor events
with a permit, such as the annual Arts in
the Heart festival – which this year has
been canceled – or at a licensed establishment’s
outdoor tables.
Chief Deputy Patrick Clayton said
Sheriff Richard Roundtree is concerned the
special permit is a slippery slope to open
containers outside the permit area.
“One thing we are vehemently opposed
to is creating a situation where you have
more alcohol downtown on the streets,”
Clayton said. “On a sustained basis, that
normally creates a big increase in violent
crime. When you start getting young men
with copious amounts of alcohol, that is
FACES OF DOWNTOWN
Dana Keen Phillips
Keen Signs & Graphics is used to
putting graphics and words on the
acrylic sheets it fabricates at its
Reynolds Street shop.
But in the early days of the coronavirus
pandemic, the company found its customers
were more in need of barriers than signage.
So Dana Keen Phillips shifted production
to start making sneeze guards to protect
clerks, receptionists, bank tellers and other
employees who come into contact with the
general public.
“It’s something people need right now.
Everyone is doing their best to stop the
spread of this, keep your germs to yourself,”
said Phillips, the company’s vice president
of sales. “Times have been really difficult for
small businesses right now, so we are just
trying to innovate.”
The 10-employee operation has made
guards for “everything from restaurants to
manufacturing facilities to nursing homes to
medical facilities,” Phillips said.
It takes a day or two to turn around a
sneeze guard order, depending on the size.
“If you just need a few sneeze guards, we
are getting those to you very quickly,” she
said.
Dana Keen Phillips, vice president of sales for Keen Signs & Graphics, holds one of the sneeze guards
it produced at its Reynolds Street shop in downtown Augusta. [FILE/THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE]
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