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Lisbon barber relieved to reopen, wife opens doors at T-shirt shop

Jon and Megan Beagle saw the small businesses they own — a barbershop in Lisbon and a custom T-shirt and sweatshirt business in Calcutta — shut down because of the government response to the COVID-19 virus. Both businesses reopened this week. They took the opportunity to give the barbershop a fresh coat of paint. (Salem News photo by Tom Giambroni)

LISBON — Jon Beagle and his wife Megan both rely on the small businesses they operate.

When the governor shut down non-essential businesses to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus, nearly all of their income evaporated, just like it did for millions of others across Ohio and the nation.

So they were understandably relieved when Gov. Mike DeWine began allowing non-essential businesses to reopen, which means Jon’s Barbershop in Lisbon will reopen Friday and he will back to cutting hair for the first time in two months.

“It’s been tough,” he said. “I kind of figured after DeWine made his announcement (on March 18) that it would be a few weeks or maybe a month, month-and-a-half,” he said. “The worst part was not knowing when we could get open again.”

Since the Beagles were self employed, they were not eligible for traditional unemployment benefits, but they did qualify for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. The state website that will allow them to apply is still under development but is expected to become operational any day.

Just this week they received their $1,200 federal stimulus checks and qualified for a loan under the Paycheck Protection Program, and they were able to defer payment on loans and bills. Jon is appreciative of the help and understands these things take time under the circumstances, but it was still a frustrating experience.

“It was a struggle, financially and mentally,” he said. “Everything they said we could get has taken us two months to get.”

The Beagles got by living off their savings, “and family and friends helped us when they could,” Jon said.“Basically, we’ve been living off our rainy day fund and it’s been raining.”

Megan operates All-Sports Screen Printing & Apparel in Calcutta, which produces custom made T-shirts, hooded sweatshirts and the like for schools, local sports teams and individuals. All-Sports reopened Tuesday, but during the closure Megan maintained an online presence by making specialty T-shirts during the pandemic, which her customers could pick up.

“My customers have been great trying to support me as much as they can,” she.

Still, business was down 87 percent in April compared to April 2019.

“With school closed down for the end of the year I lost a lot my end-of-the-year business. We’ve just been trying to stay alive with small orders,” she said.

Megan hopes business gets back to normal but she is not sure that will happen anytime soon, and in the back of her mind is the knowledge DeWine could decide to close the schools again.

“That’s really a worry for me because I rely so much on schools and sporting events. So when I hear they might extend this into fall I really worry that will affect my business long-term,” she said.

Megan believes even if schools do not close again business will not be what it was before the shutdown, as the fallout from the virus continues.

“I have seen a huge impact on my business, but I feel it’s going to continue to impact my business. The more things are canceled, the more orders I lose,” she said,

Their daughter is a member of the Lisbon Class of 2020. As such, she has missed out on her senior prom and all of the other traditional events that come with being a senior. While those things are trivial compared to losing your livelihood, Megan still feels bad for her daughter.

Megan is just glad her husband can get back to work. “We’re finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with the barbershop opening again,” she said.

Jon is eager to get back to cutting hair, and his customers have already been calling him to schedule an appointment or set one up through the Booksy app. For more information, check out his Facebook page.

The only way you can get a haircut is by appointment, and there will be no walk-ins until further notice, nor can anybody wait inside Appointments will be every 20 minutes, and masks are recommended, per the reopening guidelines.

“That will give us enough time to clean in between. We can’t do like before and have people sitting around waiting their turn,” he said. “I’ve been waiting for the go-ahead and we want to do that in safest way possible.”

tgiambroni@mojonews.com

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