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Skamania County opens with caution under Washington's Phase 2 guidelines

Phase 2 allows restaurants and more businesses to open with limitations and health safety guidelines, but many are imploring visitors to stay away a little longer.

STEVENSON, Wash. — Whether it's crossing the Bridge of the Gods from Oregon or traveling out Highway 14 in Washington, Skamania County is a popular place to visit. Stevenson is the county seat and normally very welcoming.

But Stevenson Mayor Scott Anderson says they're not looking for a crowd, as they slowly start to open up under Washington's Phase 2 guidelines.

"We’re enthusiastic, we’re optimistic, but it’s guarded... because we’re an island county; we’ve got counties on either side of us that aren’t advancing into Phase 2 as quickly as we are," said Anderson.

Phase 2 guidelines just came out for retail stores.They were closed to walk-in customers in Stevenson on Wednesday, as they figure out the rules they'll need to follow.

Restaurants are also limited in what they can do, but they've known their guidelines a little longer.

Tabatha Wiggins was opening up Walking Man Brewing's patio Wednesday afternoon, with customers ordering and picking up their own orders at the counter.

"We’re super excited to welcome people back to our beer garden, but clearly safety is our first priority. We’ll allow people to use our outside space as long as we can keep things safe, people can maintain distance and as long as we can protect our guests and the community, we’re gonna give that a try this week," said Wiggins.

Walking Man Brewing has been in business for 20 years. And there's never been a year like this. They are looking forward to getting back to normal, but they know serving locals first is the way to go for now.

RELATED: Washington's Phase 2 of coronavirus recovery requires restaurants to keep daily log of customers

"Phase 2 still says 'stay home and stay safe', so we're hoping that everyone will abide by that, and if they do come out that they will respect our restrictions and that we can all phase it slowly as we need to," said Wiggins. 

One block up, Big River Grill has been doing takeout orders, after closing for six weeks.

Owner Justin Gross is not ready for sit down diners, even limited to the 50% capacity required. The biggest problem for him is the idea of keeping a logbook of names and contact information for every diner.

"That type of thing just doesn't sit well with me and I'm not comfortable with that, so for the time being, we're gonna stay takeout only," said Gross. 

Credit: Stevenson Downtown Association

This gorge town definitely relies on it's summer tourist season to get through the year. Yet it wants a very soft opening, to keep COVID-19 out. So far they've only got three confirmed cases in Skamania County, and no deaths.

"We’re a town that really depends on tourism and we really look forward to seeing everyone when the time is right and things are back to kind of normal and it’s safe again, we’re not there yet," said Anderson.

RELATED: Dissecting Phase 1 of Gov. Brown's reopening plan for Oregon

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