BROCKVILLE -- Retail businesses in downtown Brockville are happy to be open again during the COVID-19 pandemic, even if it involves more work to keep people safe.

Limestone and Ivy reopened on May 19 and so far, it has been smooth sailing, even with all the cleaning practices.

“We’re making sure to sanitize the door handles on the change rooms, keep things clean like the debit machine....” said manager Patricia Birtch-Guirandou.

The City of Brockville emailed businesses a handy guide to follow when they reopened during the pandemic, and they have had no issues so far.

“The city provided us guidelines so we understood what we needed to do and what was expected of us,” Birtch-Guirandou said.

Rob Nolan is the Director for Economic and Development Services for the City of Brockville and said the document is based on provincial and local health unit guidelines. It also lists local personal protective equipment suppliers.

“An important part of that was a list was to add local PPE suppliers to make sure that they could get access to the PPE supplies they needed to get reopen,” Nolan said.

“We are trying to support the local businesses that are suppliers and so making sure they could go locally for them.”

Just up King Street at Savvy Footwear and Accessories, the procedures are in full effect as well.

“We have hand sanitizing station as soon as you enter the door. We also offer gloves. We limit the amount of customers that we have in the store to three plus ourselves.” said owner Jennifer Robinson

She has also introduced a different way to keep customers safe.

“This is an aging community here and a lot of our customers are older and are fearful so we wanted to approach them with a one on one appointment where they can come in have their space, freedom to look and try on whatever they want.” Robinson said.

“People are thrilled with the one on one appointments and I’ve actually had people come in looking around then before they left made a private appointment because they weren’t comfortable with the other people in the store,” she added.

Limestone and Ivy also introduced an online store, something that they had talked about for years but never had the time to do.

“We were always too busy. So being closed for two months you have zero sales so we decided to open a Shopify account for our Kingston store and Brockville store. So this time, the time was given to us and we took advantage,” Birtch-Guirandou said

She also added that some people need reminding to practice physical distancing in store, but overall everyone is following and willing to do what needs to be done so that they can have a bit more freedom.

Nolan is excited that phase one of reopening is underway

“It’s critical. Clearly we’ve had a lot of businesses which have been closed which are desperate to get back opened and start doing some business,” he said.

Nolan also stressed the fact to pay attention to guidelines set out by the business and be respectful.

“They’re there to protect themselves and to protect their clients and the customers as well and the staff. If you have any questions contact the city or the local chamber. ”

The city has not heard of any issues during the reopen process, although a hair salon was charged over the weekend for being open and providing personal service. Those businesses have not been permitted to operate during phase one of reopening.