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By SCOTT MIMS / Staff Writer

Several businesses along the 280 corridor that had shuttered their doors in the wake of COVID-19 are starting to reopen.

These included The Coffee Shoppe of Harpersville, which occupies a former Huddle House building adjacent to a Chevron. The establishment, which serves breakfast items, burgers, veggies and more, opened its doors on Monday, May 11 following Gov. Kay Ivey’s announcement easing the state’s safer-at-home order.

The reopening was a welcome sight to the restaurant’s loyal customer base.

“Everybody’s excited that we’re back open,” said owner Richard Maddox. “We have a very good following here. Everything we do is homemade. All of our customers are dedicated customers. Everybody pulled together to help me.”

While most of the town’s restaurants are fast food type establishments with drive-thru windows, Subway lacked the drive-thru option and had closed its doors. But the sandwich chain was back open Monday as well.

“All of our businesses have complied as best as they could,” said Harpersville Mayor Don Greene. “We certainly appreciate them doing that for their part, but we also feel for them.”

Greene said the town’s library and city offices have remained open partly because they are small enough to easily allow for social distancing.

“We can social distance very well. No one is working close together,” he said.

Meanwhile, the nearby town of Westover is in the process of adjusting to the relaxed guidelines. Honea Family Dentistry, which was previously seeing patients on an emergency basis only, has reopened.

Most retail businesses in the town did not close during the stay-at-home order, Westover Mayor Larry Riggins indicated, but some close-contact businesses that were forced to close have yet to reopen.

“All our citizens are very anxious for our businesses to reopen. We’ve got a couple of salons that have not reopened yet,” Riggins said. “We’re pretty much back to normal except being able to get a haircut or a manicure.”