At Lake of the Ozarks, officials saw economic boost while a worker feared COVID-19
Before the Memorial Day weekend put the Lake of the Ozarks in the national spotlight, with anger rising at the sight of partygoers flouting social distancing guidelines, local leaders in one lakeside city expressed their delight at the anticipated crowds.
The discussion came prior to the official start of a Thursday night meeting of the board of aldermen for Osage Beach, Missouri, a town of about 4,000 that is involved in the regional tourism industry.
The meeting was held via videoconferencing and was recorded. It came days before video of crowded parties in Osage Beach and elsewhere around the lake circulated around the nation on social media. Several days later, public officials from St. Louis County and Kansas were asking travelers returning from the Ozarks to self-quarantine.
Many feared that, even if the partygoers escaped harm from a coronavirus outbreak, they could carry the disease home with them and put others at risk.
A woman who works at a bar popular for tourists in Osage Beach said she worries the situation will only get worse as people search for a taste of normalcy.
‘Cha-Ching’
The video of the Thursday meeting captured the city leaders in chitchat as they prepared for the start of the meeting.
The talk centered around the upcoming holiday weekend, the large number of people visiting the area and the money those visitors would pump into the economy. But even as the elected officials welcomed the coming financial boon, some said they planned to stay home and avoid the crowds that would soon trample over public health guidelines.
Mayor John Olivarri asked if anyone had plans. Alderman Phyllis Marose replied she intended to confine herself to the patio. Others concurred, saying they planned to do the same.
“Based on what I’ve seen when I went shopping, I’m going to be staying home,” said Board President Kevin Rucker. “There’s a ton of folks down here.”
The parking lots were full at Hy-Vee and Walmart, said Rucker. There were a lot of people on the road.
“At noon today, Dierbergs had all of its grocery checkout stations manned and somebody was buying groceries at every station,” said city attorney Ed Rucker.
“It’s good,” said Marose. “That’s money in our pocket.”
“Did I hear you say, ‘Cha-ching,’ Phyllis?” Olivarri said to Marose
“Yeah, yeah, right, right. You betcha,” she said. Marose then asked Alderman Tyler Becker if they were busy over at the marina.
“Today we were pretty busy,” Becker said. “Expect the next two days to be a little crazy.”
That’s good, Marose said.
“Could be the next four, easy,” Olivarri added.
The discussion then turned to the weather forecast.
Olivarri didn’t return an email or call requesting comment on pre-meeting conversation and the events of Memorial Day Weekend.
He told a Star reporter on Sunday, however, that he did not think the crowded pool parties could be prevented or stopped.
“My concern is for our workers and whether some of the folks that have come down might be creating a health problem for the community, absolutely,” Olivarri said Sunday. “But the only other thing that you could do would be shut it down. I don’t know how you would shut down Lake of the Ozarks. There’s no way to control that.”
‘So much for social distancing’
When Tinara Lynch got a call from her employer, Land Shark Bar and Grill restaurant at Lake of the Ozarks, she felt stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Lynch, who is 21, could choose not to go back to work when the restaurant reopened, in which case she would be kicked off the unemployment benefits she’d been living off of since she and her co-workers were laid off in March.
But if she went back to work as a server, she risked bringing coronavirus home to her father, who has multiple sclerosis.
“I have to choose between going to work and making an income or basically refusing to work and quitting my job and staying with him and keeping him safe,” Lynch said of her father. “I’m not in a position where I can’t make an income at all.”
Her first day back to the restaurant was Friday. The crowd size was typical for a holiday weekend as thousands of people descended on the lake.
As the weekend went into full swing, video emerged of crowded pools filled with hundreds of people ignoring social distancing rules and guidelines issued to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
Meanwhile, Lynch was stuck quite literally in the middle of the crowds.
Many customers didn’t hear her say “excuse me” over the clamor of the restaurant as she squeezed through the crowd time and again.
She only saw a couple of people wearing masks the whole weekend.
“I’m pretty sure that everybody that has come doesn’t really care at all about social distancing,” Lynch said. “There’s absolutely no way to even be six feet apart.”
Though her employer said workers could wear gloves and masks if they wanted to, she doesn’t recall anyone doing so, herself included.
Her job includes constantly talking to customers who already have a difficult time hearing her without a mask on. And she doesn’t think gloves would do much good, since she’s constantly coming in contact with people, menus and furniture. She washes her hands each time she touches a plate.
Lynch, who previously worked at Backwater Jacks Bar & Grill before she was hired on at Land Shark Bar and Grill last year, said the videos online of the crowds at her previous workplace matched the scene at Land Shark Bar and Grill, which also features a pool and swim-up bar.
Video of partygoers at a “Zero Ducks Given Pool Party” advertised by Backwater Jacks Bar & Grill had more than 18 million views on Twitter Tuesday morning.
Lynch estimates comparable gatherings could be found at at least half a dozen businesses in the area. Friends at other restaurants sent her Snapchats of similarly-sized crowds.
She’s concerned area businesses, including her employer, are letting too many people in. She recalled the first time the restaurant got really busy Friday.
Everyone seemed to say “so much for social distancing” she said.
“We’re not having any type of capacity hold at all, so it worries me that I’m being put in a position that’s not safe,” Lynch said, adding that the crowd inside would swell each time it began to rain, driving people indoors.
As of Tuesday, nearly 12,300 Missourians have been infected with the virus. More than 680 have died.
In the four counties the Lake of the Ozarks extends across — Benton, Camden, Morgan and Miller — a combined 60 people have tested positive for the virus. One person has died.
Because of the lack of social distancing, the Kansas Department of Health and the Environment on Tuesday said Kansas residents who visited the Lake of the Ozarks over the holiday weekend should self-quarantine for 14 days after they return home.
On Monday, St. Louis County issued a travel advisory asking people to self-quarantine.
Kansas City Health Director Rex Archer said in a tweet Monday that anyone having “compassion for others” should self-quarantine if they didn’t follow social distancing guidelines while at the Lake of the Ozarks.
Lynch doubts many of the people crowding the restaurants, docks and pools over the holiday weekend will self-quarantine. Why would they, she asked. They didn’t care about being in such a large crowd in the first place.
She wishes she could self-quarantine for two weeks with her mother, who she’s staying with temporarily, before returning to her father’s. But she can’t do that because she works again Friday.
Lynch would have preferred her employer give them the option to extend their unemployment for a few more weeks as they monitor any affects that come of re-opening businesses.
When reached late Monday morning about a story regarding an employee, a manager at Land Shark Bar and Grill said he couldn’t talk because he was on his lunch break.
Lynch also worries more people eager to get a taste of normalcy will start showing up to the lake now that the videos are widely circulated.
“Now that everyone in the world knows that we’re open, that’s terrifying,” she said.
