Westmoreland business community weighs in on coronavirus restrictions, closures

In addition to coal production and car dealerships, law offices also were targeted for closure in Gov. Tom Wolf’s edict for non-life-sustaining businesses as part of efforts to slow the coronavirus pandemic.

Some local firms, however, say they are needed — and aren’t closing.

“I don’t think (Wolf) has the authority to do this,” said Murrysville lawyer James Creenan.

His law firm, Creenan & Baczkowski, employs a staff of 15 who are working remotely.

“I think we’re well-positioned to withstand the short-term uncertainty,” he said. “But there are a lot of clients who need to see us in person. If you needed to update your estate planning with the coronavirus, you wouldn’t be able to find it.”

Moreover, Creenan said his staff has been fielding a steady stream of calls from small business owners who rely on his advice and want to know whether they fall under Wolf’s order.

“It’s putting employers in a very difficult position right now,” he said. “A lot of our clients are being forced to consider layoffs.”

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Local impact

Small businesses make up the bulk of Westmoreland County’s about 8,800 privately held businesses. An estimated 85% of the county’s businesses employ 25 or fewer people, said Chad Amond, executive director of the Westmoreland County Chamber of Commerce.

“I’m hearing from businesses all of the time that they are confused with the orders from the governor,” Amond said, noting Wolf’s order that non-life-sustaining businesses close by 8 p.m. Thursday. “ ‘What is a non-life-sustaining business, how do you describe that?’ ”

Many businesses and industries listed as non-life-sustaining in the governor’s order “are, in fact, part of the supply chain for other businesses listed as being a life-sustaining business,” said Gene Barr, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry.

The state announced Friday night that it will delay enforcement of the business closures until 8 a.m. Monday. Also, by the end of Friday, the governor decided to let coal mining operations stay open.

Crabtree

About a dozen people congregated outside Bardine’s Country Smokehouse on Friday afternoon. A red ticket dispenser stood near the door.

The butcher shop and retail store allowed about 10 people inside at a time, precautions taken by owners Gary Bardine and Steve DiBerardine to help protect customers and employees.

“There was a day where things really started to pick up here where there were 40, 50 people all bunched together inside the store, and we just made the decision for risking health of customers and the employees that we’re going to follow the guidance,” DiBerardine said.

People preparing for the possibility of a two-week quarantine have been emptying shelves at grocery stores across the area. But at Bardine’s, shelves and cases were full of chicken, pickles and peppers, kolbassi, cheese and more.

“As of now, we haven’t been doing any rationing or limiting how much of a product somebody can buy,” DiBerardine said, noting vendors were still delivering products. “As people know, things change by the day, by the hour.”

Grocery stores, gas stations, pharmacies, beer distributors, bakeries and auto parts stores are among businesses permitted to stay open.

“Meat processing and grocery stores, they’re vital,” DiBerardine said.

He added: “I think everybody has to be a bit resilient and to be able to adapt on the fly to accommodate this. This is new. No one’s ever had to deal with this. It’s something you never even thought you could see. … You’ve just got to be ready to adapt.”

Ligonier

Chairs remained stacked on tables Friday morning despite Ligonier Creamery opening in 20 minutes.

Cathy Eller, a manager at the shop, had no intention of taking them down. The shop is observing the state mandate that restaurants can only provide take-out or delivery.

“We’re hanging in there,” said Eller, 52. “I don’t know where we’re going to end up. It’s slow and they keep changing what can be open, what can’t be open. We have no seating, take-out only. Trying to get people in and out as fast as we can.”

Five people are employed at the shop, alternating shifts to ensure each person receives a paycheck.

Uncertainty over the virus and potential further government mandates has left the owners and employees in limbo, Eller said.

“We may end up having to close. It comes down to what happens as far as what they decide. … I know it’s going to hurt a lot of people,” she said.

Shops around Diamond Park in Ligonier remained dark Friday morning, from On the Diamond Antiques to Martin’s Specialty Shop. While several cars drove through the center of town, few people walked the sidewalks.

Diamond Café remained open for take-out orders. Mary Jobracken, a cook, said fewer customers have come in.

Normally, between 10 and 12 people arrive by mid-morning, she said. On Friday, there had been three, maybe four.

“I’m just trying not to think about that,” Jobracken said. “It’s hard. What can you do, though? You try not to stress over it, but you do anyways. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens. You know it’s probably going to go on a lot longer than two weeks.”

Farther down East Main Street, Howard Nair, owner of King Fisher Coffee House, is keeping a positive attitude despite the changing mandates.

He said there was confusion earlier about whether he qualified as a life-sustaining business, noting that a handful of customers had come in during the morning.

He’s not worried about business, however. “This is something that’s happening. Just breathe in deep and let it go.”

Murrysville

Army Sgt. Natalie Tedesco, who owns Tedesco Body Shop gym on Route 22, was in the midst of preparing to leave for a military assignment when she received a message.

“Being in the military, I get a heads-up on a lot of stuff,” she said. “I got an eight-hour advanced notice that basically we were to stay in place, and that this was about to get pretty bad.”

Tedesco Body Shop was closed as of Tuesday, and Tedesco’s first thoughts were about people who would shortly be hunkering down at home.

“You read about people locking things down during hurricanes, and there’s something called ‘hurricane gain’ — people go out, stock up on food and then they’re just sitting at home. And a lot of times when people are going through this, the last thing they focus on is themselves.”

Tedesco and gym staff immediately created a free Facebook group, “Immunity Community,” to offer free daily livestreamed workouts to both keep residents exercising and to help alleviate boredom, along with health and wellness tips and updates. The group can be accessed by searching “TBS Immunity Community” on Facebook.

“What we need to do is educate and be there for people, and provide hope, sanity and support,” Tedesco said.

Breathe Yoga, also in Murrysville, will record yoga sessions over the next two weeks, which they will post to their Facebook page, Facebook.com/BreatheYogaPGH.

Social distancing is not a problem at David Perry’s American Geosciences office in Murrysville. Two-thirds of the staff is working from home, and everyone remaining has their own office.

The real problem is likely to arrive in about two weeks, Perry said.

“We’re environmental consultants,” he said. “A client has an issue and we go out, collect soil or groundwater samples or whatever they need, and determine if they have a health or safety issue. But all of our subcontractors are considered non-essential services.”

With building construction, civil engineering construction and specialty trade contractors all deemed non-essential in the most-recent version of Wolf’s list of what can and can’t remain open, Perry worries that the trickledown effect will force him to close.

“If we don’t have any drillers or excavation contractors working, then we don’t have work to do,” he said. “What will happen for us, even though we’re able to continue physical operations in this space, we will be shut down in a couple of weeks at most, because we just can’t do a lot of the types of work that we do.”

It’s business as usual — and then some at 77Design, a digital marketing company in Murrysville, said principals Rob Hoffman and Bobby Darkulic.

The men, whose home-based business employs three full-time workers and one part-timer, said they were concerned when it appeared there would be a shutdown. But they’ve found their business is booming. They said they are scrambling to keep up with the demand for social media from clients they represent in public relations. They also are promoting online courses they offer on social media and blogging.

“We like to remind people that it’s important to keep marketing their businesses even now. During the Depression, Procter & Gamble hunkered down and kept advertising and they came out of it as one of the strongest companies around,” Hoffman said.

Latrobe

William Urbanik, of SecondHalf Coach Wealth Management, a Latrobe-based investment management firm with seven employees, said his office closed in accord with the governor’s order.

“But we’re 100% operational. We had a business continuity plan put into place years ago that would allow us to operate in the event of losing our office due to fire or natural disaster,” Urbanik said. “Last week when the governor asked everyone to do social distancing, we put it into place. … We’ve seen zero impact from the shutdown. We have access to client accounts, can do trading, get signatures, whatever we need.”