Steve Brown started working in the bowling industry part-time, after school and on weekends, at 12 years of age. He is now in his 50th year, the past 18 of those as owner of Fun Bowl in McDonough.

  It is safe to say that he will remember this year.

  “We have never been closed on a Friday or Saturday night in my career,” said Brown, whose McDonough and Fayetteville bowling centers have been closed since March 18. “Even when we had snow or ice, it seemed to mostly happen earlier in the week.”

  Along with nearly every other person in his industry, Brown was extremely surprised  when Gov. Brian Kemp included bowling centers on the list of establishments that could reopen during the first phase of his plan to get Georgia businesses up and running again. Georgia was the first state to allow bowling to resume.

  “We usually don’t get an honorable mention,” he said. “We were among the first to get closed down, and I figured we’d be in phase 2 or phase 3 to reopen.”

  After Kemp’s order, bowling centers were cleared for an April 24 reopening if they chose. Brown elected to wait a little bit longer.

  “We decided as a company that we just weren’t ready, and we wanted to wait another 2-3 weeks,” he said. “To some people, it was going to be too soon regardless of what [Kemp] said. It could have been July 1 and it would be too soon for them.”

  Brown has set a May 15 target date for Henry County to have bowling once again. That day is a Friday, since weekends are the busiest times for the overall operation. That is three weeks later than the center could have been legally opened, and nearly two months since it closed.

  But there will be plenty of new restrictions in place as well, such as using only every other lane and limiting each lane to six or fewer people. The food and drink operation will be under the same guidelines as any restaurant. The party rooms and arcade rooms must remain closed.

  Bowling balls and other accessories must be cleaned thoroughly after every customer’s use. Brown pointed out that one reason he delayed reopening was the lack of access to normal cleaning supplies, such as alcohol for cleaning the lanes. “We couldn’t even find things we use on a normal day.”

  Some of the bowling centers that are already open have been operating as low as 15 percent of normal business, he added. As with restaurants, many owners have debated whether it is financially feasible to open yet under the restrictions.

  “Our expenses will still be at 100 percent,” said Brown. “The light bill is the same, and so is the air conditioning. That’s another reason we decided to wait.”

  The toughest part of the entire process came in March, when he had to tell his employees. About 30 percent of them are full-time, and some of them have been with him 25 years or more, going back to when he operated bowling centers in Atlanta. They were paid through the end of March, and many of them have since been dealing with an overwhelmed unemployment system that has not responded to them yet.

  Several employees will be back on the job Monday getting ready for the reopening. A few others started this week in Fayetteville doing some needed upgrades while the facility is closed.   “We are blessed and fortunate,” said Brown. “We have a lot of faithful, long-time customers. I hope they support all local businesses, not just Fun Bowl. They are absolutely going to need it, because two months is a long time to recover from for a small, family-owned businesses.”