2020: The year that won’t be missed

Unlike any year before, 2020 has affected every facet of life from restaurants to retail businesses to government entities.

Restaurants in the Lakelands were hit very hard by the pandemic. Gov. Henry McMaster’s state of emergency and executive orders forced restaurants to change how they had operated for years.

“It’s been trying,” Howard Corley, owner of Howard’s on Main, said. “It’s cost us a lot.”

Corley said his business has faced additional costs of buying plastic eating utensils instead of using reusable metal utensils. Also, he said catering has not come back. With more usage of virtual meetings and fewer in-person meetings, the catering side of his business has taken a hit.

Restaurants, such as Corley’s, have survived on one key ingredient.

“Our customers have been so loyal,” Corley said. “Just good loyal customers.”

With the novel coronavirus vaccine rolling out to health care workers, hope is in sight.

“I’m going to take it,” Corley said.

He is also going to encourage his employees to take the vaccine when it rolls around to food service workers.

Small businesses were also affected.

“2020 has been extremely difficult for small business owners,” Lara Hudson, Uptown Greenwood Manager, said in an email. “We have only seen two close in Uptown, however the remaining businesses are struggling with less traffic, difficulty getting inventory in their shops and just overall lower spending in general.”

The year saw two businesses close in Uptown, Crossin’s Deli and Main Street Market, while another business, Trapped Cuisine, opened.

Hudson said she believes creativity was the one thing that helped businesses get through the year.

“These small businesses have had to reinvent how they exist and how they run their businesses,” Hudson said. “Many of them had an online presence or e-commerce platform already in place so they were prepared for closures and less traffic and spending.”

Hudson said many Uptown businesses had to completely pivot their business model to stay afloat.

“The community support of our local businesses this year has also been vital,” Hudson said.

Local governmentsGovernment departments also had a tough year while the pandemic raged.

“Local governments faced a pandemic the likes that no one else had seen,” Greenwood County Manager Toby Chappell said in an email. “There was no analogous issue or history to follow.”

Both Greenwood County Council and Greenwood City Council switched to video teleconferencing for a few meetings to reduce in-person meetings. Both councils continued to use forms of this technology throughout the year, ensuring members had a safe way to get together.

“We were forced to close buildings, deal with nervous staff, interpret guidance that was oftentimes ambiguous and all the while serve as a place that people could rely upon to receive accurate and timely information,” Chappell said.

Chappell said governments are prepared for disasters, such as hurricanes, through procedures that can be modified and followed.

“Given the unprecedented nature and the prolonged timing of what we have faced, I am proud of the work that has been done by local governments in South Carolina,” Chappell said.

Government revenue also took a hit in 2020, although compared to others, it was a mixed bag.

“We fared 2020 relatively well with only minor projected decreases in revenue anticipated for our 2021 budget,” Greenwood City Manager Julie Wilkie said in an email. “We will have to keep a very close eye on both revenues and expenditures as we navigate the next 6 months.”

Wilkie said while the city’s hospitality tax collections were down $49,000 compared to 2019, the accommodation tax collections were up $3,600.

It was slightly different for Greenwood County. Chappell said county accommodations tax revenue was down 39% compared to 2019, while Capital Project Sales Tax collections and hospitality tax collections were both up 14% and 6% respectively.

“Since A-tax is so closely tied to travel, it only makes sense that this would be most heavily impacted by COVID,” Chappell said.

Chappell said the pandemic did not cancel any projects in 2020, some did get the level of attention that they would have during non-pandemic times. He said restoring the floors in the courthouse by the facility maintenance department had to be temporarily halted because of change in their work related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wilkie said early talks of constructing a new public works and fleet management facility were halted because of the pandemic.

Overall, she said the city did quite well during the pandemic.

“We were diligent in monitoring expenditures for worst case scenarios, many departments were forced to freeze positions,” Wilkie said. “We have a very resilient staff that put their heads together to continue to thrive.”

Stopping trials bloats

local docketsCrime never sleeps, but when a global pandemic makes it unwise to pack jurors into a courtroom, trials have had to take a rest this year.

In-person court and all criminal jury trials were suspended in mid-March, brought back at the end of July and then halted again Dec. 4. Hearings that used to be held in courtrooms moved to WebEx and Zoom screens, and plastic partitions went up in courthouses across the state.

“Doing things online was a whole different world,” said Greenwood County Clerk of Court Chastity Copeland. “Now though, it’s like the new normal.”

Online meeting software and record filings let attorneys go on about their business while state court administrators figured out ways to safely bring the criminal justice system back. In August, the 8th Circuit Solicitor’s Office brought the first jury case to trial in the state after trial restrictions were lifted, but the courtroom looked drastically different. Partitions separated the judge from the witness stand, seating was spread out to allow for physical distancing and everyone wore masks or face shields to guard themselves and those around them.

“We have done everything in our power, in light of our limited resources in the 8th Circuit, to be at the forefront of this crisis and continue to work our dockets,” Solicitor David Stumbo said.

Still, court stoppages have meant cases that would have gone to trial this year have sat dormant while new warrants are still being served. The year added about 4,500 new warrants to the 8th Circuit’s docket — about 300 more warrants for the 14 general sessions prosecutors in the circuit.

“I fear it will take a few years to get these numbers back to the December 2019 levels with our current staffing,” Stumbo said. “This reality burdens me, but my staff and I will continue to do everything in our power to overcome this as we work one case at a time to get the greatest amount of justice that we can in each case. No matter how long it takes.”

The novel coronavirus has crept into every aspect of our lives in 2020, making decisions for us, leaving us mired in uncertainty, and education was no exception.

Education adjustingSchools were shut down in March, by McMaster, leaving educators and parents scrambling to keep the children’s education going.

“I think in the beginning there was a lot of uncertainty,” Kerri Pratt, an 11th-grade teacher at Ware Shoals High School, said. “This was something none of us had ever experienced, I felt so unprepared as both a teacher and a parent.”

Although the beginning of the pandemic was uncertain, parents and students got into the swing of things as time went on.

“I feel like I communicated more with parents than before,” Pratt said, adding that families, students and teachers had no choice but to get comfortable with technology.

Of course, virtual learning is not for everyone. It requires skills in time management, which can take some time to get used to.

“Our teachers have been so good at extending grace and working with students that struggle,” Pratt said.

Children were forced to become independent learners, which according to Pratt isn’t a bad thing, but they did need some time for adjustment. “I think that’s what disrupted education the most,” Pratt said.

While students were learning to adapt to virtual learning and an A/B schedule, sports and extracurricular activities were also canceled.

“I think it disrupted the community connection,” Pratt said. “Our community loves to come to our sporting events.”

Pratt is hopeful that with all the adversity that this year has brought us, the teachers will come out stronger.

“This has shown us that we need to be flexible and adapt,” Pratt said. “There’s just a learning curve with all of this.”

Lost art: Cultural arts,

entertainment among hardest hit in 2020The performing arts sector has been among the first to close and the last to reopen amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Stephen Gilbert, executive director of Greenwood Community Theatre says the 300-seat theater is “in survival mode.”

“The current focus is trying to make enough money to function month-to-month, for our mortgage, utilities, salaries and insurance,” Gilbert said. “Looking back at 2020, we had a loss of approximately $300,000 in revenue, almost exclusively related to lost ticket sales and sponsorships. Most grants and sponsorships are tied to our programming, such as shows, outreach and our Penguin Project (a theater program pairing disabled actors on stage with peer mentors in a modified Broadway musical).”

Incredibly, the Downtown Abbeville Merchants Association was able to host all of its 2020 events, including a summer wine walk in July that sold-out and holiday events this fall.

Paige Bowser, owner of Breezy Quarters, and vice president of the Downtown Abbeville Merchants Association said the group plans to proceed into 2021 “better than ever.”

“We have been careful to encourage safety in our community by encouraging mask-wearing and social distancing,” Bowser said. “Our first priority has been keeping people aware of what’s available in Abbeville and supporting merchants who did need to close, with awareness of their alternative plans, such as offering take-out or changed business hours.”

Karen Jennings, executive director of The Museum and Railroad Historical Center in Greenwood said that for the first two-thirds of 2020, those two nonprofits were unable to fundraise, but supporters of the nonprofits have continued staunch support.

“Federal grants for nonprofits helped keep us going during that time, and our supporters have continued to be generous, “ Jennings said. “We are fortunate the Railroad Historical Center has outdoor space, so we have more flexibility in fundraising events there.”

Normally, by this time of year, the McCormick Arts Council at the Keturah would have a roughly 80 percent estimate on the picture of year-end giving, according to Heather McNally, director of programming and development.

“We’ve had consistent growth in our development program each of the last five years,” McNally said. “But, it’s unclear yet on the giving amount for larger gifts.”

By July 2020, McNally said MACK had already amassed a loss of $24,000 from programming revenue and she said total shortfalls could be much greater.

However, even in these pandemic times, McNally said MACK has received a combined charitable gift of $2.6 million through the Yoder Rosenberg Family Foundation.

Funds are for rehabilitation and maintenance of the historic building that houses the MACK and funds are being used for an educational scholarship and youth programs.

“In our 35th anniversary year, we got a pandemic and it hasn’t gone away,” McNally said. “We’ve had to rethink. For example, this summer, we partnered with Clemson Extension and our library. We provided creativity kits instead of our usual on-site summer arts program for youths.”

Lisa Sanders, executive director of Greenwood Performing Arts, stepped into that role in October after a long banking career.

“I felt like it was more important than ever for us to have music and entertainment,” Sanders said. “We did have to cancel two fall events that were to be at Greenwood Community Theatre, but have partnered with others to do socially distanced concerts outdoors with Lander and at venues Uptown with limited audiences.”

Ticket sales revenue is down at the Abbeville Opera House, according to Mike Clary, Abbeville community development director.

“I think it’s safe to say $75,000 to $100,000 in ticket sales revenue has been lost,” Clary said. “The loss of events at the Abbeville Opera House during this time has been especially hard on commerce here…It’s difficult to replace the 200 to 1,000 visitors each weekend that events at the Opera House would bring in.”

Originally Published by Index-Journal on:Dec 26, 2020

By  From staff reports
Article Link: https://www.indexjournal.com/news/2020-the-year-that-wont-be-missed/article_fc016df9-722c-514f-a652-d493a8b3d78d.html