Our Town Out Loud: Stimulus

WHAT DOES ADRIAN THINK ABOUT THE NEW STIMULUS PACKAGE?

By Kate Mitchell | Editor in Chief

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, decisions made at the state and national levels can hit even closer to home. The recent passage of the American Rescue Plan is one of those decisions, an act with a high price tag but one that will bring millions of dollars to Lenawee County. So we wanted to know…

“I think it will. People will be more likely to shop downtown and get their fi nances in order.”

Victoria Lambright, Adrian

“It will a lot. People have their jobs again and it will help a lot with local commerce. It will help keep people safe with the health money, too.”

Felipe Lemos, Adrian

“It will, for small businesses it will help a lot. People will have money to go shop.”

Yaquelin Navas, Adrian

“DO YOU THINK THE MOST RECENT COVID-19

STIMULUS PACKAGE WILL HELP ADRIAN?”

“It’s going to do a lot for smaller restaurants. It will help them open back up and get a little bit of a jump start. I’m not sure about retail, but I think it will help stu downtown.”

Zach Brewer, Adrian

“I think it’s good. I think it will stimulate the economy.”

Paul Nelson, Madison Twp.

enclosed space of a movie theater, Gubert says the theater o ers private screenings. This is where groups of up to 20 people can get a deeply cleaned movie theater to themselves. Old movies can be screened for $99 and new movies can be screened at $149.

“We are fully prepared to come out of this. It gets better every day. More movies are coming back into the schedule,” Gubert said. “We will be back as strong as ever, as soon as everything calms down.”

The Tecumseh Pub is currently welcoming patrons at 25 percent capacity and co-owner Kyle DeWitt is hoping to get up to 50 percent capacity by midMarch. DeWitt and his business partner Tim Schmidt run a restaurant in downtown Tecumseh and a separate production facility and tap room in a pole barn nearby. One of their saving graces, according to DeWitt, was the pre-pandemic purchase of a food truck. DeWitt said that while they didn’t intend it this way, the ...fl exibility of their food truck has allowed them to be a kitchen for their tap room. “We got the food truck o cially licensed in the November before the pandemic, and everything ready to go by February. Then COVID hit,” DeWitt said. As they were riding out the pandemic – and even hiring more employees on a part time basis — having the food truck was “huge. It was very prudent for us to do this,” even though, Dewitt acknowledged, it was basically accidental.

“Live music and trivia nights will be returning to Dewitt’s business as soon as it is safe to do so.”

The Brick Walker Tavern won’t be back to normal operations until after the Fourth of July at the earliest, not because of COVID-19, but because of renovations.

Laurie Perkins, a historian with the state park system, told Adrian Our Town that during their “summer of construction,” they will keep exhibitions in the former stagecoach building and will keep the building closed.

“Walker Tavern, in one form or another, has been a tourist attraction in the Irish Hills for 100 years, this November,” Perkins said.

Some exhibits will be open however. The historic barn will be inspected by the Michigan Barn Preservation Network this April, but its renovation work will not start until this fall. And of course, the adjacent Watkins State Park will be open. All of the venues’ owners said that their reopening strategies hinge on the health guidelines dictated by the statistics gathered in Washington and Lansing. Lockdown restrictions have been widely protested in this year-long pandemic, but the owners of these venues insisted that they have to stick to them for the safety of their patrons and employees.

Pledge for Vaccinations

President Biden has pledged that 100 million vaccinations will be administered in his fi rst 100 days. But supply issues and a seeming lack of coordination between Washington and state capitols have slowed down the process considerably, meaning that the current best guess most people have for when life could get back to normal is somewhere in the mid-summer.

It is yet to be seen if that will happen. But once it does, Lenawee County will still have a wide range of attractions ready to welcome patrons back to have fun and socialize, county-wide.