‘It’s time’: Some Old Town businesses decide to re-open despite Sedgwick County recommendations

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – On Wednesday, you could hear music playing and power washers running in Old Town Wichita. Now, that Sedgwick County Commissioners voted to only recommend and not enforce Governor Kelly’s ad Astra plan, some businesses are preparing to re-open.

Heroes Sports Bar and Grill say they will re-open their club on Friday, May 29. Mike Mansour, Manager of Heroes says community members have been waiting for this moment.

“We get so many phone calls every day asking if we are open our regular hours. People are frustrated.”

Heroes plans to limit the crowd and encourage six feet distancing. Ultimately, Mansour says it’s up to the people if they come out or not.

“Citizens need to make their own choices. It’s time. It’s two months, we can’t just be telling people to stay home the whole year.”

While some businesses are ready to re-open their doors this weekend, others like Fever Night Life are waiting an additional week until June 6 to make sure all their safety precautions are in place.

“We’ve kind of trained everybody to stay at home, so we need to re-train them to come to a place they not only love but trust,” said Austin Henry, Fever Night Life General Manager.

Henry says those safety precautions will include hand sanitizer, gloves, and a tool to make sure the only fever is the name outside.

“We are gonna be doing temperature checks at the door with a camera that checks your temperature. So, that’s not in yet. So, that’s one of the reasons we are delaying opening up,” he said.

Overall, managers are ready to see Old Town come back to life.

“It’s been dead for over two months I can’t wait to see it booming back up because this is our economy, this is everybody’s jobs. this is how we, people survive,” said Mansour.

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