Some Local Recreation Businesses Re-Open

Recreational businesses can slowly open again starting Wednesday, but some businesses are waiting.

Plateau Lanes manager Debbie Blaylock said she and her staff are excited to return to work Monday after eight weeks.

“It’s been detrimental, I mean it really has,” Blaylock said. “Lost and leaked revenue [from not having] open play, birthday parties, church groups, tournaments. We were supposed to host a state mix tournament this year for the state of Tennessee the first of June.”

Social distancing will be implemented by having every other bowling lane open. Blaylock said they’ve kept the restaurant open for takeout and curbside for some revenue intake.

“We’ll recover, we will,” Blaylock said. “Our lease and stuff, a lot of them have been willing to help with different lineage issues and stuff with that, so I think we’ll be fine.”

Cookeville Escape co-owner Evan Stafford said he may not choose to open the business until late May.

“As an escape room, you literally touch everything,” Stafford said. “You touch every book, every shelf, every picture frame, sometimes even the carpet or the floor. I mean you typically touch everything.”

Stafford said staff are discussing how to maintain cleanliness after parties go through the rooms. He said it’s been a challenge to figure out how to properly clean everything.

“The smallest mistake or the smallest little thing could hurt someone or some family and that’s the furthest thing that we want to do,” Stafford said. Trying to control that and medigate that as much as possible is why we’re slow playing it maybe a little bit more than other businesses.”