Wichita-area restaurant-bars getting an early curfew amid coronavirus COVID-19 spike

Wichita’s late-night bar and nightclub scene was shut down again Friday by the Sedgwick County Commission after changes to a public health order created a loophole that would have let most popular nightlife destinations remain open.

Businesses that sell alcohol for on-premises consumption must close by midnight, starting Saturday.

The commission restored a sentence Friday that it took out of County Health Officer Dr. Garold Minns’ original public health order Wednesday.

The change is aimed at closing a loophole that would have allowed businesses that serve food by day and then transform into a club scene at night to remain open while bars and clubs that sell alcohol almost exclusively were shuttered.

The curfew passed 3-2, with Commissioners Jim Howell and Michael O’Donnell voting against it.

Some commissioners said they made a mistake by voting for the Wednesday change without knowing much about Wichita’s nightlife scene, saying some of the restaurants they regularly eat at turn into a club after dark.

“They’re something by day and something else by night,” said commission Chairman Pete Meitzner.

Commissioner David Dennis added that he frequents some of those restaurant-bars without knowing that they change after dark.

“Some of these do turn into bars later on, but I’m not aware of it because I don’t go to the bar scenes,” Dennis said.

The commission called a special meeting Friday afternoon to close the loophole after Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple criticized the commission’s changes to Minns’ order, saying they “gutted” it, “making it almost useless.”

That brought out an expression of ire from Dennis, who blasted the mayor for making his criticism of the order public.

“For him to go out on social media as he does all the time, for him to go directly to the media as he does all the time and start calling out Sedgwick County, is absolutely wrong,” Dennis said. “We have six great City Council members, I am very proud to call all six of them my friends and I talk to them frequently. Unfortunately, we don’t have a mayor who can do that.”

Dennis said he’d be happy to talk to the mayor if he has concerns about a county action.

“But don’t stand up and say that you’re doing everything right and Sedgwick County is doing everything wrong, ‘cause every time I’m going to defend Sedgwick County,” Dennis said. “And we have the greatest staff of people here that keep us informed and keep us out of trouble.”

It’s the continuation of ongoing friction between the city and county governments over coronavirus response.

For example, Whipple called the City Council into a rare special session on the Fourth of July weekend to pass a city ordinance mandating that most people wear protective facemasks in public settings to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus at holiday gatherings.

Whipple took that action after the county had decided earlier that week to make mask-wearing a “strong recommendation” rather than a mandate.

Whipple said on the issue of bar closures, he talked to Meitzner, commission Vice Chair Lacey Cruse and County Manager Tom Stolz since the commission action changing Minns’ original order Wednesday.

“In my mind I’m doing what I can to be a partner in this,” Whipple said. “And I think part of being a partner to is point out if there are unintended mistakes.”

Whipple said he understands Dennis is frustrated, but he attributed it more to the overall situation than any personal animosity.

“I’m glad he made the right decision today,” Whipple said. “It seems like they fixed the order to the extent to where we might see less problems — that have been reported over the last few weeks by our police chief — with really some of these bar scenes getting to the point where they become more like club scenes.”

Cruse, who has often found herself on the losing side of votes to place public health restrictions, spoke at the meeting immediately after Dennis derided Whipple, urging everyone to get along for the sake of public health.

“We have got to get our arms around this. We’ve got to work together,” she said. “This is hard. At times, I lose my cool. This is a lot, and I would appreciate that everybody give everyone grace.”

Changes were out of step with order’s intent

Coronavirus is spreading rapidly through Wichita, and the highest percentage of the new cases are people in their 20s and 30s.

The intent of Minns’ original order was to curb that spread by shutting down the nightclub and bar scene, where social distancing, mask wearing and other inhibitions start to slip late into the night.

A Wichita Eagle check of business licenses at popular late-night spots found many would be exempt from the public health order and allowed to stay open because of the removal of the curfew amendment.

On Friday, Stolz said that change “clearly did not meet the spirit” of the order.

The commission’s amended order narrowly defined “bars and nightclubs” as drinking establishments that makes less than 30% of their gross revenue from food and non-alcoholic beverages.

The change, suggested by Howell and passed Wednesday, was made before the county had a list of businesses that would be closed or allowed to stay open.

“One of the problems we have when we have off-agenda items, and we start trying to make sausage from the bench, is sometimes it’s not very tasty after we get done with it,” Dennis said.

After seeing the businesses that fall outside of that definition and would be allowed to stay open, the county moved to close the gap.

The order would have closed some clubs, including Industry, Enigma, Revolution Lounge, XY and Fever in Old Town and several other clubs and bikini bars throughout the city.

But many popular nightlife destinations serve food during the daytime and during the week and then “morph” into a nightclub on nights and weekends, Stolz said.

That’s something not originally considered by the commission on Wednesday when it made the amendment, he said.

The Pumphouse, 6 Degrees, Heroes, Brickyard, Emerson Biggins, Wave and River City Brewery would have all been free to open their doors this weekend and remain open until 2 a.m. under the Wednesday amendment.

Outside of Old Town, most of the city’s other late-night haunts — including the recently-opened, large dance hall Midnight Rodeo — were also exempted.

The curfew doesn’t take effect until Saturday at 2 a.m., leaving businesses to remain open Friday night if they so choose.

Objections to closing businesses

Howell and O’Donnell both said they think the curfew goes too far and shows a lack of trust in small businesses to follow best practices and county guidance.

“I expect every business to have the same rules and follow the same rules or suffer the consequences,” Howell said. “We are making a lot of assumptions to target these businesses as the problem in Sedgwick County. But even when these businesses close, the very same people will find other ways to entertain themselves and they will have access to alcohol and social gatherings (at) other places.”

“My concern is that we are picking winners and losers,” O’Donnell said. “My concern is that we don’t really have an off ramp because I know this is supposed to last one month, but then again, the last shutdown order had dates that were just extended and extended and extended.”

The commission voted to backtrack on restaurant-bars after turning aside an effort by Howell to exempt schools from the county order’s mandate that people over age 11 wear masks in public gathering settings.

Howell said all decisions on schools should be left to each of the county’s school boards.

“In order for that to happen, we need to back out,” Howell said.

But Dennis said he and other county officials met with school superintendents in the past two days and none of them had a problem with the county order as written.

The Wichita school board voted Thursday to require mask usage by all students, faculty and staff in common spaces regardless of what the county does. Wichita is the largest district in the state, with more than 50,000 students.

Dennis also pointed out that the county mask order and a similar Wichita city ordinance are due to expire well before opening date for Wichita schools, which will be either Sept. 8 or 9.

Howell’s motion died on a 3-2 vote with him and O’Donnell voting in favor.

Businesses affected by county health order

List of 74 bars that will be closed under county health order

List of 353 restaurants that serve alcohol that must close at midnight under county health order

This story was originally published July 24, 2020 at 2:28 PM.