SULTAN, Wash — Washington businesses defying statewide coronavirus restrictions face losing licenses or being hit with criminal charges or hefty fines.
Still, some establishments refuse to follow the ban on indoor dining and exercise, including Spiffy’s Restaurant in Lewis County, which faces more than $67,000 in fines, and a Pierce County gym with $77,000 in fines.
Now a Sultan restaurant owner, who says he's followed the rules, but his business is struggling, feels the newest round of restrictions is going too far.
Bubba's Roadhouse Bar & Grill opened in Sultan in 2002.
"It was going great until this. Now we're doing 25% of what we were doing (before the restrictions),” said owner Bubba Deach.
With tanking profits, Deach made the difficult decision to permanently close the Gold Bar location of his restaurant.
"We had to walk away after spending tens of thousands opening it. So that was very discouraging,” Deach said.
He put his time, energy and money into the one remaining location in Sultan, creating an outdoor space for customers -- even building a walk-up take-out window.
A grant from the city of Sultan helped him purchase pop-up tents and heaters so customers can eat comfortably outside.
“The local community here, every time something like this has happened, support small business. I can’t even believe right now, with what’s going on, that they sit outside, even with heated tables,” he said.
While some businesses pushed back against the governor's COVID restrictions, Deach said he's followed every single one.
"If one spreader situation happened because we did not enforce that, or a fatality, a COVID death, my wife and I could not live with that,” he explained.
Just down the road in Sultan, the Logger's Inn had its liquor license suspended last month for going against state mandates. Deach said, while he wouldn’t do the same, he understands why some business owners choose to defy orders.
"I don't blame them for what they're doing because they're faced with, 'I don't have the money, I'm going to close and I'm going to lose my business' for however long they had it. And allowing that business to come in is their last ditch, you know, to try and survive this,” said Deach.
But Deach believes the extension of the newest round of restrictions is too much.
"The four weeks was going to be hard and now that it's been extended, we're worried that we'll probably have to dip into savings or other reserves,” he explained.
Deach argued restrictions should be placed on a case-by-case basis with each community making their own decisions.
"It doesn't make sense to me that a small establishment with a low number of cases that we have in our little community, that we couldn't have stayed open with the mandates. So, don't treat all businesses across the board the same,” he said.
