CHAMPAIGN – Annie Easterday had a sign with a simple message outside the Champaign-Urbana public health district of Champaign on Saturday morning.
It was said: “We have been doing what you asked us to do. We can’t pay our bills now. “
The business owner of Pear Tree Estate, in rural Champaign, struggled to express her feelings about a pandemic that is clearly out of her control.
The business of its wedding venue has received 74 cancellations since March, resulting in the unemployment of 10 full-time and 40 part-time employees.
“It’s difficult to put it into words. We have not tried to avoid the rules. I don’t want to portray that we are against the health department. We haven’t had a job in nine months. We have to find a way to get help, ”he said.
Easterday was one of approximately 100 people who attended the Kenyon Road public health district offices to support restaurant, bar, hotel and other hospitality service employees who want answers about why their industry seems to be bearing the weight of COVID. load.
“The rules … are leaving people out of work even though we’re one of the safest communities,” said Dave Jones, president of One Main Development, which owns several buildings in downtown Champaign. “We have eight restaurants (in our buildings). Half is closed, the other half barely works.
Jones and others at the rally, including District 51 Chapin Rose Senator R-Mahomet, cited numbers showing the seven-day COVID positivity rate in Champaign County at 1.8% (including tests on the campus of Champaign the University of Illinois), well below the governor’s threshold. of 8 percent for mitigation requirements, which began Nov. 20.
“You don’t need a CPA to understand that 1.8 is less than 8,” Jones said.
Excluding user interface testing, the formula used by the state, the seven-day Saturday positivity rate for the region 6 – 21 counties, including Champaign – remained at 8.4 per one hundred.
Jones said only five of Illinois’ 102 counties appear to apply mitigation rules regarding the ban on indoor food.
“Why do we send residents to other states for dinner? This community has done the testing. We appreciate COVID being a serious health concern, ”however,“ arbitrary and aggressively enforced ”rules ignore the psychological toll of restaurant owners, Jones said.
Champaign County State Attorney Julia Rietz responded that “as difficult as it is financially, in the interest of public health, (enforcing the rules) is the right one.”
Rose criticized Pritzker for not following his own rules and for not counting the tests that were done at the UI to determine the positivity rate of the region.
He said he is working on legislation to release, for small businesses, about $ 100 million of the $ 750 million he said the state has for COVID relief.
Tom Briski of Urbana came forward to support Kathy and Jim Flaningam, the owners of Apple Dumplin in Urbana, who were also present.
“People should have the right to choose. I’m not going to attend my independence funeral, ”said Briski, who said he missed Friday’s fish special at Apple Dumplin after a judge agreed Thursday with the public health district not to allow the restaurant is open to eat inside.
Jim Flaningam said Saturday that it had not yet been decided to carry out the realization.
“I’m a destination,” he said of the High Cross Road restaurant on the northeast side of Urbana.
“The reason people come is companionship and interaction. We have customers who, when their relatives can’t reach them, will call the restaurant. We are known for our service as much as for the food, ”said Jim Flaningam.
Mahomet’s Gary Longfellow, a self-described person of common sense, suggested that “everyone just has to take a break.”
“They hesitate,” he said about state regulations that seem to change on a daily basis. “Don’t tell me I can go to the mall or Walmart with hundreds of people, but not to my friend Jim’s dining room with 30 people.”
Dick Adams of Champaign is a fan of the Original Pancake House. He doesn’t understand why a “50-degree tent is safe, but being in a cleaner building than when it was new” isn’t.
“There are so many contradictions in the way we manage it. I care about people (affected), “Adams said.” I just want my ham and eggs. “
Scott Tapley of Savoy, a former Champaign county board member who works as a wealth planner, said he came to support business owners “who were struggling because of unnecessarily heavy regulations.”
“I share with people who lose their jobs, livelihoods for reasons beyond their control and that are probably not necessary,” he said.
Organizers of the event urged people to donate to the Champaign County Hospitality Aid Fund set up through the tourism office to help unemployed workers.
Donations can be made online at visitchampaigncounty.org/foundation/hospitality-relief-fund.
The office accepts applications from employers whose workers need help the most. Donors to the fund include the Chamber of Commerce and the Champaign-Urbana Hotel Association.