By Tony Buhr

The Wenatchee World

LEAVENWORTH — Health officials are advising people to stay at home and limit travel, but the streets of Leavenworth have been filled with holiday visitors.

The annual Christmas lighting festival itself is not happening and most of the main attractions are not taking place. But one frontline restaurant worker, Kenzie Converse, feels the town and the Christmas lights it’s famous for are still too open for business.

“These lights are advertising our town by default,” Converse said. “Like you don’t even have to say anything, because the lights are up.”

Converse is a bartender in downtown Leavenworth, she didn’t want to disclose the name of her employer to protect their privacy.

“I’m a bartender so I card people,” Converse said. “I’ve been carding people from Florida, from Texas, from Georgia to Montana and Idaho, from Hawaii, even like I’ve been carding people from out of country.”

The Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce helps put up the Christmas lights around town each year. The lights usually start the day after Thanksgiving and continue until Valentine’s Day.

The city is now considering the possibility of only turning the lights on during weekdays to reduce the number of visitors on busy weekends, Leavenworth Mayor Carl Florea said.

“Maybe the lights can be something that draws during the week, but not on the weekends,” Florea said. “I mean last weekend (in late November) it was pretty crazy and that is not a traditional Christmas lighting weekend either, so the ones coming up we’re very much aware and we’ll be watching closely.”

In a statement, the Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce said it is not actively promoting people to visit Leavenworth. It has canceled all of its festivals and is encouraging people to enjoy a virtual experience on their website.

“This constantly changing and evolving environment creates a tightrope for us to walk between helping the city’s commerce, while also adhering to public health guidelines and safety measures,” said Jessica Stoller, Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce spokesperson, in an email.

The chamber did not respond to emails for further comment.

Leavenworth has one of the highest ratios of COVID-19 positives per city in Chelan County. From Nov. 16 to Nov. 29, 40 people tested positive in a city of 2,010 people, a 1,990 per 100,000 positive case rate over a two-week period, according to Chelan-Douglas Health District data. Chelan County had a 906.1 positive case rate and Washington state has a 436.8 positive case rate as of Friday.

Chelan-Douglas Health Officer Dr. Malcolm Butler said he’s received complaints from Leavenworth residents about the number of visitors to the city. The county is in Phase 2 of Gov. Jay Inslee’s phased reopening plan, which advises people to limit non-essential travel, he said.

“Again we are witnessing the frustration caused by unenforceable mandates,” Butler said. “Wherein the efforts of people who are dutifully following the mandates, trying to stay home and socially distance and keep their family and their community safe, are mocked by people who choose not to care.”

People shouldn’t be focused on the businesses, though, because that’s not where transmissions are occurring, said Sean Lynn, Love Leavenworth Vacation Rentals owner. His business and others have been booming with visitors since the summer, he said, and yet the number of positive cases has just recently started to climb.

He thinks the increase in positive cases is because people are socializing at each other’s homes. People are experiencing fatigue from following COVID-19 health regulations and their compliance is slipping, he said.

“I know being a Leavenworth local that there are a lot of local cliques that have been up here getting sick,” Lynn said.

Lynn said he hasn’t been traveling downtown himself since the pandemic started. He won’t go to any of the restaurants, except maybe to grab takeout.

“I personally wouldn’t choose to do that or have my family do that, but I wouldn’t do that anywhere,” he said.

It’s also scary for the frontline workers in the shops and stores who are working during these busy weekends, Converse said. People don’t think about it, but it’s challenging to keep things 100% clean when dealing with hundreds of dirty plates, napkins and other pieces of garbage.

“These frontline workers are literally grabbing people’s dirty dishes, dirty forks, napkins, dirty glasses at this crazy-fast rate,” Converse said. “I mean I do my best to wash my hands before every interaction, but it’s just impossible with the amount of people.”