‘Community is more important’: El Paso west side bar owner struggles – but understands need for virus closure

EL PASO, Texas -- Lloyd's Pub shut their doors when the city of El Paso requested them to.

"It was on Saint Patrick's Day of all days to do that but we understand. The community is more important, every person matters," said Sylvia Colbert, one of the owners of Lloyd's Pub on the city's west side.

The bar industry has taken a hit during the pandemic and Colbert has been a part of this community for years. "We are all a family, doesn't matter if we're one business versus another business. In our area, we are all one bar family," she explained.

Colbert and her partner are taking care of their employees: "We gave our employees their last week of pay plus a few days. We gave them an extra cash bonus to get them through the next week, because we didn't know what was going to happen."

When finding out about other businesses that violated the requested shutdown, Colbert responded, "To stay open a day later than anybody else was in my opinion completely selfish, and anybody that went there gave no regard to the community around them or their families."