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Bars to reopen Oct. 5 in Palm Beach County

'You can't have these businesses dying,' Gov. DeSantis said
Art Studio Cafe.JPG
Posted at 10:00 PM, Sep 24, 2020
and last updated 2020-09-25 04:52:41-04

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Maria Paz cooked up some vittles in her Art Studio Cafe in Downtown Lake Worth Beach.

Paz is happy to hear restrictions on operating hours are being lifted by the county.

"It's stressful as a business owner because it is a responsibility to abide by rules, regulations, laws. If someone is getting a sandwich at 11:45 pm how fast do we have to cook?" she said.

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Palm Beach County Commissioners revised their Phase Two businesses reopening plan Thursday. Staff modified the timeline to reopen venues earlier than initially planned.

Friday, Sept. 25, all restrictions related to hours open for business will be lifted. Monday, Sept. 28, auditoriums, bingo parlors, comedy clubs to playhouses can open at half-capacity. On Oct. 5, bars, hookah, and cigar bars can reopen at 50% capacity.

Governor DeSantis weighed in on the situation earlier Thursday in Tallahassee.

"You can't have these businesses dying so they're not going to be able to be closed by locals anymore and they will be able to operate at the capacity that they're comfortable with," he said.

Paz said the sad thing is she won't be able to make up any of the loss of income.

"It's kind of like losing sleep, you never really recover lost money, you just have to work triple to regain it," she said.