Illinois Restaurant Association To Vote On Indoor Dining Ban Suit
ILLINOIS — The Illinois Restaurant Association will vote Thursday whether to follow the lead of Geneva's FoxFire Tavern and file suit on behalf of the state's 25,000 restaurants against new coronavirus restrictions now imposed on more than half the state's Emergency Medical Services regions, ABC 7 reports.
Region 10, Suburban Cook County, and Region 4, the St. Louis Metro East, saw indoor dining banned Wednesday in response to skyrocketing test positivity rates and diminished hospital capacity. Region 9, Lake and McHenry counties, will follow on Saturday, joining Regions 1, 5, 7 and 8, which saw new restrictions imposed earlier this month.
"These resurgence mitigations aim to cut down on some of the highest high-risk activities until we bring down the positivity rate in a region once again," Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Wednesday. "I know this virus is hard on everyone. But this battle isn't going away by itself. We have to manage our way through it with the tools we have available to us."
But some restaurant owners wonder how they will survive the winter amid a new crackdown on indoor dining.
FoxFire owners K.C. and Curtis Gulbro sued Gov. Pritzker, the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Kane County Health Department last week, a day after announcing the restaurant would defy the governor's indoor dining ban.
A Kane County judge granted the restaurant a temporary restraining order Monday that allows FoxFire — and only FoxFire — to ignore the governor's orders. The state has appealed that ruling, while the restaurant association is weighing whether to challenge the indoor dining ban more broadly.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, dining at bars and restaurants is closely linked to the spread of the virus in many communities. Adults who tested positive for the virus were approximately twice as likely to have reported dining at a restaurant than those with negative test results, according to a CDC study published in September. Experts now believe the coronavirus is airborne, and tiny droplets containing the virus can linger indoors for hours as aerosols, making indoor dining especially risky since diners have to remove their masks to eat and drink.
Nonetheless, the Illinois Restaurant Association "continues to actively fight to keep restaurants in every region of Illinois open for indoor service," according to a news release.
"We are also exploring all possible legal remedies," the group said.
"The Illinois Restaurant Association is calling on Governor Pritzker and the General Assembly to take a pragmatic, tiered approach to mitigations and provide direct financial support to struggling restaurants around the state," according to a statement on the group's website. "Unless the state of Illinois takes a more reasonable approach to mitigation, thousands of restaurants are at risk of permanent closure."
The Restaurant Association argues that banning indoor dining will drive people toward "uncontrolled, unmonitored private gatherings where few safety precautions are in place," and directs visitors to its website call their representatives, participate in a social media campaign, or send a pre-written email to their officials "with one click."
"We need you to send a message to Governor Pritzker to urge the state modify the Restore Illinois mitigation plan to allow for continued indoor service at restaurants," the group writes online.
Here's the full text of the association's form letter:
As a restaurant owner/operator, I cannot support the COVID-19 mitigation plan presented by Governor Pritzker’s office that ceases dine-in operations at restaurants across the state of Illinois. Moving backwards in this manner spells complete devastation for the restaurant industry. The extreme measures outlined by the Governor’s team will result in the permanent closure of countless restaurants statewide, eliminating thousands of jobs and desolating the communities inhabited by millions of residents.
Since the onset of the pandemic, the restaurant industry - which is among the most highly-regulated in health and safety - has quickly implemented and enforced enhanced procedures and policies with respect to sanitation, PPE, social distancing, timed reservation blocks, face coverings, hand sanitizer stations, signage and more. It’s alarming that restaurants are among the only businesses affected in the Governor's most recent announcement given our unparalleled levels of safety. I am concerned for my fellow operators throughout the state that are closed and most importantly for all of our employees.
We do not agree with the order to completely eliminate dine-in operations. We want a pragmatic mitigation plan that supports the health and safety of our state without jeopardizing the livelihoods of the people and businesses that serve as the cornerstone of our communities. Earlier curfews and reduced occupancy levels are two examples of more reasonable measures.
We have serious concerns over the consistency of the data the state is using to drive these drastic decisions to close our industry. By contrast, DuPage County has provided detailed statistics indicating that restaurants are linked to just 6% of outbreaks over the past seven months - yet their indoor dining was shut down. As the science surrounding COVID-19 has evolved, so must the metrics for mitigation.
Additionally, as we are forced to close indoor dining and lay off our team members, we are doing so without any financial support. The funding opportunities currently available from the state of Illinois are only helping the smallest fraction of restaurant operations. The state needs to provide grants, waive licensing and permitting fees and delay tax payments, as well as advocate for relief at the federal level.
Conservative estimates indicate that at least 20 percent of restaurants will be forced to close their doors permanently. This would mean 120,000 jobs in Illinois, gone. We cannot allow this to happen. Closing restaurants down now means closing them for good!
The statewide positivity rate has risen nearly 2 percentage points over the last two weeks, and hospitalizations have jumped by an alarming 48 percent over the same period. On Wednesday, the state reported more than 6,000 new cases, just short of the record set over the weekend.
"We are getting close to the entire state implementing mitigation measures," IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said this week. "This is not just a warning, but a call to action. We continue to move backwards, losing all the ground we had gained over the summer."
This article originally appeared on the Across Illinois Patch
