LAUREL, De. - HAWAII'S GOVERNOR ANNOUNCED THAT THEY ARE REDUCING CAPACITY TO 50 PERCENT AT RESTAURANTS. THIS HAS SPARKED CONVERSATIONS HERE ON Delmarva about WHETHER SIMILAR RESTRICTIONS COULD BE RE-IMPOSED, especially since masks ARE MAKING A COMEBACK HERE ON DELMARVA.
RESTAURANT WORKERS ARE NOW QUESTIONING WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT. GROTTOS Pizza IN Seaford IS BACK TO WELCOMING GUESTS AT FULL CAPACITY. THE restaurant's HOSTESS, TABITHA LADNUM, SAYS she's HOPING THERE ARE NO FURTHER RESTRICTIONS.
"Technically, it would make me feel upset because everything is taken away from the families. Everyone comes here to enjoy our food and our services and everything like that," says Ladnum.
TACOS CHABELITA IS A Mexican RESTAURANT IN LAUREL. THE MANAGER, Isabel BARRUETA, SAYS LIMITING THE CAPACITY AGAIN WOULD HAVE A HUGE IMPACT ON HER WORKERS AND SHE DOESN'T WANT THAT TO HAPpen again.
"It will affect, number one, myself and the employees because we will have to cut their hours if we go back to 50 percent capacity. That means we won't need full staff on the weekends or even during the week," says Barrueta. "I will have to cut their hours so it will really affect them."
THE LAUREL TOWN MANAGER, Jamie SMITH, SAYS SHE DOES SEE RESTRICTIONS IN THE FUTURE AND RECOGNIZES THAT THIS WOULD IMPACT LOCAL RESTAURANTS ONCE AGAIN.
"I think that there's going to be some sort of mandates whether it's mask restrictions. I do foresee that coming with the numbers rising. If we go back to the restrictions and the number of people permitted into restaurants, it could have a huge impact. I know many of them suffered the last time and they're still recovering," says Smith. "So having more restrictions is just going to cause more impact and take them that much longer to recover."
IT'S STILL UNCLEAR IF MORE RESTRICTIONS WILL RETURN. however, RESTAURANTS OWNERS REMAIN hopeful THAT WE WON'T SEE A REPEAT OF LAST YEAR IN Delaware.
