- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Lakeport’s Rainbow Ag store reopens after brief closure due to COVID-19
This week Rainbow Ag’s Lakeport store, located at 1975 Argonaut Road, enacted a brief closure in order to sanitize the facility after a member of an employee’s household tested positive.
Also this week, the owners of the Lakeport McDonald’s said the restaurant closed temporarily after finding out one of its employees had tested positive for COVID-19. Following cleaning, the restaurant has reportedly reopened.
Rainbow Ag reported that the employee whose family member tested positive had last worked on Monday, loading hay and feed. He was masked and distanced during his work time. He’s now in isolation and getting tested.
Rainbow Ag’s procedures ensure that high touch surfaces have been sanitized multiple times per day and all staff members have passed a health check before working.
Out of an abundance of caution, Rainbow Ag owner Jim Mayfield told Lake County News that they chose to close the Lakeport store on Wednesday afternoon and hired West Coast Fire & Water to professionally sanitize the entire store facility. That work was completed on Thursday.
At the same time, he said all 20 Lakeport store staffers are on paid leave, isolated and getting tested – with up to a seven-day wait for results – and won’t return to work until they have been cleared.
He said his staff at the Middletown and Ukiah stores are rallying to send team members over to help cover the Lakeport store, which will reopen on Friday, with slightly reduced hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Creating a plan for moving forward
Before COVID-19, Mayfield said Rainbow Ag has had to make adjustments to closures due to wildland fires – such as what occurred in the summer of 2018 – and purchased a generator in order to remain open during the public safety power shutoffs in the fall.
Since the pandemic started, Mayfield said work has continued at his five stores in Lake, Mendocino and Sonoma counties.
“We’ve been essential so we’ve never been closed,” he said.
While the stores’ hours initially were reduced, over the last month they’ve turned to regular hours, he said.
Mayfield said that over the last several months he’s tried to stay ahead of the situation, with his company writing the procedure for keeping his staff and customers safe as they went along. Mayfield said he told his staff they were practicing a three-month fire drill.
Outside of those efforts, “there is no playbook,” Mayfield said. “The state doesn’t tell you what to do, the county doesn’t tell you what to do,” and even the industry is vague on protocols.
He said his “team behind the masks” has done a phenomenal job of maintaining heightened awareness, developing a protocol for giving people masks or, if they won’t take them, asking them to social distance or offering to load up their vehicles.
So when the COVID-19 test in his employee’s household was reported, Mayfield said he had a plan for what to do.
He said he called Lake County Public Health about the case.
“They didn’t have a clue,” he said. “It was a very disappointing phone call, to tell the truth.”
He said all that Public Health could do was refer him to the public testing site. As for contact tracing of cases, he said on Thursday that Public Health hadn’t contacted his company.
At the same time, Mayfield – an early adopter of social media – used Facebook to communicate the situation with customers and the community.
“I was almost in tears at the response,” said Mayfield, calling it “incredibly supportive.”
He said it’s a great testament to the people he works with in his company.
When the Lakeport store reopens on Friday morning, Mayfield said the store will be sanitized, the staff will be masked and customers will meet a crew they haven’t seen before.
“We have to be more diligent now than we have ever,” Mayfield said.
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