CHAMPAIGN – Annie Easterday held a sign with a simple message outside the Champaign-Urbana public health district of Champaign on Saturday morning.
He wrote: “I did what you asked me to do. We can’t pay the bills now. “
The business woman who owns the Pear Tree Estate in rural Champaign has struggled to express her feelings about a pandemic that is clearly beyond her control.
Their wedding business had 74 cancellations in March, resulting in 10 full-time employees and 40 part-time employees without a job.
“It is difficult to say. We didn’t try to circumvent the rules. I don’t want to show that we are against the health department. I haven’t had a job in nine months now. We need to find a way to get help, “she said.
Easterday was one of about 100 people who showed up at the Kenyon Road public health district offices to support employees in restaurants, bars, hotels and other hotel industry services who want answers as to why their industry seems to be struggling. COVID burden.
“The rules … put people out of work, even though we are 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 are closed, the other half barely working. “
Jones and others at the rally, including Senator Chapin Rose of R-Mahomet, District 51, cited figures showing Champaign County’s seven-day COVID positivity rate at 1.8% (including tests on the University of Illinois campus ), below the governor’s 8% threshold for mitigation requirements, which began on November 20.
“You don’t need a CPA to understand that 1.8 is less than 8,” Jones said.
Excluding the analysis of interface tests, the formula used by the state, the seven-day positivity rate on Saturday for the region 6 – 21 counties, including Champaign – remained at 8.4 percent.
Jones said only five of the 102 counties in Illinois appear to enforce the ban on indoor dining.
“Why do we send residents to other states for lunch? This community did the testing. We appreciate that COVID is a serious health problem, “but the” arbitrary and aggressively applied “rules ignore the psychological value of restaurant owners, Jones said.
Champaign County Attorney Julia Rietz responded that “no matter how difficult it is economically, in the interest of public health (enforcement) is what needs to be done.”
Rose criticized Pritzker for not following her own rules and for failing to take UI tests to determine the region’s positivity rate.
He said he was working on legislation to release about $ 100 million for small businesses out of the $ 750 million the state told him he had for the COVID exemption.
Tom Briski from Urbana showed up to support Kathy and Jim Flaningam, 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 specialty at Apple Dumplin after a judge agreed Thursday with the public health district that the restaurant should not have permission to stay open for meals indoors.
Jim Flaningam said on Saturday that he had not yet made his decision on how to walk.
“I’m a destination,” he said of the restaurant on High Cross Road in the northeastern part of Urbana.
“The reason people come is for camaraderie and interaction. We have customers who, when their family members can’t get them, will call the restaurant. We are known for both our services and our food, ”said Jim Flaningam.
Gary Longfellow of Mahomet, a self-described “common sense person,” suggested that “everyone just needs to take a break.”
“They are hesitant,” he said of state regulations that appear to be changing daily. “Don’t tell me I can go to the mall or Walmart with hundreds of people, but not to my friend Jim’s living room with 30 people.”
Dick Adams of Champaign is a fan of Original Pancake House. He does not understand why a “50-degree tent is safe, but being in a cleaner building than it was when it was new” is not.
“There are so many contradictions in the way this has been handled. I care about (affected) people, “Adams said.” I just want my ham and eggs. “
Scott Tapley of Savoy, a former board member of Champaign County who was hired as a wealth planner, said he came to support business owners “who are struggling because of unnecessarily onerous regulations.”
“I am sympathetic to the fact that people are losing their jobs, their livelihoods for reasons beyond their control and which are probably not necessary,” he said.
The organizers of the event asked people to donate to the hospitality fund in Champaign County set up through the tourist office to help unemployed workers.
Donations can be made online at visitchampaigncounty.org/foundation/hospitality-relief-fund.
The office accepts nominations from business owners whose workers are most in need of help. Among the fund’s donors were the Chamber of Commerce and the Champaign-Urbana Hotel Accommodation Association.