CANNON BEACH — State and local restrictions over the coronavirus have hit many businesses hard on the north Oregon Coast. One business owner has pushed back against signs meant to discourage visitors.

“Due to COVID-19 Cannon Beach is closed to visitors,” state the signs set along U.S. Highway 101 ahead of entrances to the city.

The messages are targeted at tourists, but Erin Fenison, the owner of Cannon Beach Soap Co., said customers who live in Clatsop County think the admonition also applies to them.

“Like don’t even bother coming in,” she said.

Fenison is collecting signatures on a petition that asks the city to amend the signs. She supports the city’s policies and doesn’t want to suggest what the signs should say — she trusts city councilors and believes they could come up with something better.

But she would like a softer message, one that makes it clear businesses are still open and north coast residents can still shop.

As of late last week, she had collected over 70 signatures from a mix of locals and people who live outside of the area.

Many Cannon Beach business owners make the bulk of their money during the spring and summer tourism season, but they rely on local traffic in the late fall and winter. Without a boost from spring break crowds this year and with summer still an unknown, they are more reliant than ever on local customers.

Last spring, Fenison moved her business into a new location nearly four times the size of the old one.

“That was kind of a big transition and an expensive year,” she said. “We really counted on this year to bring us out of it. There’s no cushion for us.”

Like other business owners, she is trying to adapt, finding new ways to reach customers and provide them with goods in a safe way. But the streets are deserted and rent is not cheap.

She isn’t sure if she’ll be able to bounce back.

“It’s impossible to say, honestly,” Fenison said. “All I know is it has significantly hurt our business and there’s a lot of businesses that wonder if they’re going to be here after this is over.”

Deanna Hammond, the co-owner of Cannon Beach Bakery, supports Fenison’s efforts and plans to pen a letter of her own to the City Council making a similar request.

“We can go to Seaside, Warrenton, Astoria to do our shopping and support our local businesses, but they don’t feel like they can come here and support us because it clearly states the town is closed and they’re worried they’re going to be ticketed,” she said.

The bakery offers preordering and pickup options and is looking to add home delivery several days a week.

“I absolutely feel like we can weather this storm,” Hammond said. “I’m not saying it’s going to be easy.”

After all, she added, “we’re not going to be able to pay our rent in May. We’re just not. Maybe a portion of it — and when does this stop?”

Like many others, they will be looking to help from the government or from grants.

The Cannon Beach Chamber of Commerce sent a poll to business owners asking what would be the most helpful assistance from the city. More than half responded that they would prefer assistance through a grant program, Jim Paino, the chamber’s executive director, said. Several hotels also asked for a deferment of lodging tax payments.

The City Council is discussing potential relief options.

In his most recent message to residents posted on the city’s website on April 13, Mayor Sam Steidel acknowledged the difficulty of the situation for businesses.

But Cannon Beach is a unique draw, the mayor wrote.

“When the time does come, we will see business return with a fury,” he wrote. “People have been cooped up and our sands are too much the temptation to resist.”

The question of when to reopen to visitors is a difficult one, though, and balance is key, he added. Like other coastal leaders, Steidel is worried about a flood of people too soon.

Oregon and Washington state’s governors will ultimately make the call about when to change stay-at-home orders and other closure policies and cities like Cannon Beach “are somewhat at the whim of those higher powers,” Steidel wrote.

“That said, I will keep the closed sign up as long as possible,” he said.