Extended patios are being built fast and furiously throughout Kamloops.

As of noon on Thursday, director of development services Marvin Kwiatkowski said 18 applications had come in from Kamloops businesses. Last year, there were 13 extended patios built for all of 2020.

One of the first went up on Wednesday morning at Caffe Motivo.

Kitchen manager of Caffe Motivo, Lindsey Tetreau, says there has been a “significant drop” in business this week, after indoor dining was suspended on Monday by B.C. health officials, which will last until at least April 19.

Tetreau says the outdoor patio at Caffe Motivo will hopefully replace some of the lost business.

“It’s been a bit of a whirlwind. I mean everything happened so fast, so as a management team we all kind of sat down together and said ‘how are we going to tackle this.’ Because we were expecting that we were going to see a significant drop in business. Unfortunately we had to tell some stuff is your best bet is going to be applying for the CRB [Canada Response Benefit].”

Tetreau says her business is following all safety protocols and that it’s still safe to go inside and order.

Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association executive director, Carl Desantis, says an extended boardwalk-like sidewalk extension is being built around extended patios in part of Victoria Street, which is on the north side of the street between 3rd and 4th avenues.

“It’s fantastic, and it’s going to really support our downtown restaurants.”

Desantis applauded Kamloops city staff for quickly acting on extended patio applications, and he asks residents to support local if they are able.

The city is covering the cost of letdown ramps to build around the extended patios, while businesses cover their own patio furniture and railings. The only difference from 2020 is the city is building the sidewalk extensions with concrete bricks instead of wood.

In total, $200,000 is set aside in the city’s budget to pay for building sidewalk extensions, with money coming out of the $6.68 million in COVID-19 Safe Restart funds provided by the B.C. government. Last year, for 13 letdowns, the city spent $195,000. Council agreed to revisit the $200,000 commitment if all of it were spent.