AMHERST, N.Y. — It's been more than two months since New York lifted indoor mask mandates for vaccinated individuals at most businesses, including restaurants and gyms.

Catalyst Fitness Owner Amy Bueme, who has seven locations in Western New York, said it was a turning point for her business.

"When the masks came off, that really helped because people felt they couldn't exert themselves with a mask properly," she said.

Bueme said she's still not back to full staff or making the same money she did pre-pandemic, but she says at least things are moving in the right direction. However, she believes reinstituting masks would be a big step backward.

"One-hundred percent I would lose customers," she said. "People would freeze their memberships again. I would not be able to bill."

On Wednesday, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said if the county enters what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classifies as substantial risk of community transmission, he will require masks for all employees and visitors inside county-owned buildings regardless of vaccination status.

Poloncarz reportedly suggested earlier in the day the mandate would extend to private businesses but later clarified that would at least not immediately be the case, although the county strongly recommends masks in all public facilities and would consider requiring them if there is a substantial caseload and hospitalization increase.

"Everything should be, in general, is, leave it up to people's decisions to make their own choices, but give them an option that makes them feel comfortable,” Brandon Carr, the owner of The Quarter in Buffalo, said.

Carr said he continues to have a socially-distanced mask section for customers who prefer it in his restaurant. He hopes the county allows him to continue with the policy.

"This mask mandate could be one thing and then the next day it could turn into something else and then it could be back to table sizes or back to partitions,” Carr said. “You never know what they're going to do with this because they don't even know what they're going to do with this.”

Bueme and Carr hope as the county considers further restrictions it will consider not only public health, but the economic health of small businesses trying to recover, as well.

Meanwhile, Erie County Comptroller Stefan Mychajliw is already urging businesses to boycott any mask mandate that might be reinstated. He is offering to spread out fine payments over decades in order to ease any burden the protest might cause.