NEWCASTLE, Wash. — Newcastle business owner David Jones poured six figures into his new restaurant and was planning to launch the new location of 'Blazing Onion' just as Gov. Jay Inslee announced a temporary shutdown of all restaurants and bars.
He was training his employees, using the time to feed his neighbors, with a planned official opening scheduled for next week.
Then, with little notice, the plug was pulled. "Died, died Monday," he said, voice trailing.
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Jones said the state's order to close restaurants and bars to in house food service came too late, and without much of a plan. He takes issue with the late Sunday news alert, followed by a Monday morning press conference. He says it came too late to cancel the food orders, which arrived that day.
"They should have developed a plan with some relief for the restaurants, relief for the employees, unemployment benefits for employees," said Jones, who believes Inslee and King County Executive Dow Constantine should have signaled the move was coming, a lot like several school districts did in the past couple of weeks.
Jones started the Blazing Onion chain, and now has eight of them across King, Pierce and Snohomish Counties, and owns a few Subway franchises as well.
All told, he said the sudden move left more than 250 employees in a lurch, many of which are part-time and don't qualify for unemployment assistance.
Inslee said Tuesday he and his staff were working on some ideas for tax relief.
Constantine and the King County Council asked the governor to delay property tax payments for small businesses. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan will announce on Wednesday the expansion of the small business stabilization fund, to give small businesses grants to cover shortfalls.
Durkan also pushed to defer B&O taxes and late Tuesday issued an order placing a moratorium on non-profit and small business evictions. Amazon is also offering grants to impacted small businesses near their headquarters.
Inslee also said he believes there would have to be a Presidential declaration to allow for more people to claim unemployment through the crisis.
Jones said his employees are his utmost concern, and that simply offering take-out meals won't pay the bills for them. "They haven't offered a plan, so to me, they're not doing anything, they just said close."