“I’d be lying to say it was not stressful,” said Ann Marie Cilley, owner of The Causal Pint.
Rafael Salem, who owns the Pour House next door with his wife, Toni, and also AA Plumbing in Fairfield, was quick to act and able to turn off the water supply to the restaurant.
It could have been worse, Cilley said. That fast action resulted in Servpro needing just a few days to clean up the damage from the suspected faulty pipe.
But closing the restaurant and bar down even for a few days was not an easy call. Her biggest worries weren’t about her business or the time spent talking with the insurance company. They were about her employees.
The restaurant and bar business is largely tip-based, and while insurance can cover lost wages, including tips coming from credit cards, it doesn’t cover cash tips, which is a large part of her bar staff’s salary, she said.
It was suggested Cilley start a GoFundMe page to see if the community could throw her staff a few extra dollars to help tide them over until The Casual Pint reopened.
The fundraising campaign exceeded its goal, bringing in around $5,000 in just a few days. That also didn’t include the $1,000 she received in donations elsewhere. The support was “wide and varied,” Cilley said.
That meant she wouldn’t lose her staff, who could have looked for other jobs.
“We have such a strong team, and they are all friends with one another and they all operate as one unit. I didn’t want to lose that,” she said. “And on top of that, they didn’t ask for this.”
Business owners take risks to open the doors, but she said employees should not bear that burden when unforeseen incidents occur, like a plumbing-related flood.
“They shouldn’t have to deal with this. I just want them to be as whole as possible, too,” Cilley said.
Credit: Michael D. Pitman
Credit: Michael D. Pitman
Pinball Garage owner Brad Baker will always have a special place in his heart for Cilley, because it was her kindness — as well as the owners of Municipal Brew Works — that allowed him to place a pinball machine in the establishment before he formally opened his business.
It was Cilley’s people-first philosophy that prompted Baker to offer to match the first $500 raised for the GoFundMe. He has a similar attitude.
“Those folks are customers of ours,” said Baker of Cilley and her staff, “and they’re just folks that we see a lot that support our business and we figured we use our large social media page to try to get the community behind it.”
Baker’s commitment “ignited the GoFundMe,” Cilley said, and other businesses, like Petals and Wicks, donated.
“I would assume, if I would fall on some hard time where just the inevitable happened, that folks would probably do a similar thing for us, and Ann Marie would be near the front of that line,” Baker said. “It seemed like the right thing to do, to kind of help them out.”
But worrying that much about her people comes from her Long Island roots. Her brother, Matthew Corless, a retired paramedic from the New York Fire Department, is the same way, she said.
“I think this is my love language,” Cilley said of service. “I think we serve in different ways. It’s just part of who we are. It’s how we were raised.”
Though she feels obliged to service and improve her corner of the world, Cilley said “we should be creative” in how that’s fulfilled.
“Hamilton’s been really good to me, and I also want to be really good in return,” she said. “I also feel it’s what we’re here for. We should be here to hopefully a little bit better than the way we found it.”
LEADING LADIES OF BUTLER COUNTY
This is part of a series of stories featuring women in Butler County who shape their communities. These stories will feature women who are leading small, business and large businesses, institutions, and organizations.
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