A Hennessey bar owner asked town board members if he was going to have trouble with the law if he couldn’t control customers who don’t practice social distancing when he reopens on Friday.

“We have hand sanitizer and we’ve moved the tables around, but we don’t have much space,” said Mike Walters, owner of Friend’s Bar, during Thursday night’s town meeting.

Board members looked at Administrator Tiffany Tillman for an answer to implement Phase 2 of Governor Kevin Stitt’s COVID-19 Open Up and Recover Safely Plan that allowed bars to reopen Friday.

“We can’t tell our officers what to do,” said Tillman, “and so all I can tell you is that we haven’t (enforced it).”

She told Walters she’d gone to a restaurant in Enid and they had no chairs at the bar and had tables marked at safe distances so people knew where they could sit.

“But you know how people are,” said Walters, “they just pull up a nearby chair and sit down...It’s going to be hard to keep control, but we’ll do the best we can.”

“I understand,” said board member Wes Hardin, a partner in Vernost Wine Company’s wine and beer bar in Hennessey. “I’m hoping people will use common sense,” Hardin said.

“We don’t want another McDonald’s,” said Vice Mayor Clif Vogt, referring to an Oklahoma City incident where a customer, who was told she couldn’t dine-in, fired shots at employees.

Tillman said town hall and the public library would also reopen for inside service on Friday, May 15, as part of the governor’s plan that the board had approved.

All board members were present for the meeting: Mayor Bert Gritz, Keith Meek, Richard Simunek, Hardin and Vogt.

(Ed. note: More meeting information will be in the Wednesday, May 20, edition.)