Eddie McBride Discusses His Letter to the Governor Asking Him to Reopen Bars

Monday on KFYO Mornings with Dave King and Matt Martin, The President and CEO of the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce Eddie McBride joined Matt and Dave to talk about the letter that he wrote to the Governor about why bars should be reopened, bars attempting to follow guidelines, bars transitioning to restaurants, and more.

The last order that Governor Abbott put in place for Texas in the midst of the pandemic, order GA-28, closed bars with the exception of to-go sales. Eddie explained that many bars had outdoor seating areas, and were trying to work around what the order actually said by allowing customers to order to-go and then use the outdoor seating. "That seemed like a pretty logical thing to do, seeing how they let restaurants do that as well," Eddie said. However, that has not been how it played out, with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission enforcing the entire order. Eddie went on to explain that some bars also were not properly following social distancing and safety guidelines, saying, "The entire industry, more or less, was shut down because of a few bad actors."

McBride has written a letter to the Governor to ask him to allow bars and breweries to open in the hopes that they can try and make a little bit of money. He points to the Texas Craft Brewers Guild, who says that 2 out of 3 breweries will be closed by the end of the year if they were to follow the current guidelines.

Eddie was also asked if he thinks that the Governor set out to put bars out of business specifically with this order, to which he said that he has no reason to think that might be the case. He explained that because it is difficult to control people's activities in bars, that the spread of the virus is much more likely to happen. Because of this, the Governor is trying to take in all the information he has to try and put some rules in place. Despite this, Eddie believes that the sooner we can open back up, the better.

Watch the full interview with Eddie McBride in the video above.

KFYO Mornings with Dave King & Matt Martin airs weekday mornings live, from 6:00 AM to 8:30 AM on News/Talk 95.1 FM and 790 AM KFYO, online at KFYO.com, & on the free KFYO app.