On April 28, the Harrisburg City Council considered a proposal to allow in-store shopping at retail establishments, even though it would defy Gov. J.B. Pritzker's stay-at-home order issued in March and extended it to May 30.
Harrisburg Mayor John McPeek told the Southern Illinoisan that he will defy the governor's order only if the entire city council is on board. McPeek owns Mackie’s Pizza in Marion.
Other local business owners spoke to the council about this topic on On April 28. One of those included Stephanie Church, owner of Stephanie’s Salon and Spa.
“My license is very important to me. Like I said, I’ve had it since I was 19. It’s my whole life, and I love my clients, and I’m missing them, and they miss me,” she told the city council in the meeting. "My people would be more than happy to sit in their car and wait until the next person leaves."
WSILTV reported that the city council is asking business owners to write a letter detailing their concerns and send it to Pritzker’s office.
Pritzker was asked about McPeek’s suggestion, and told reporters at an April 24 televised news conference that it was a violation of his order. Despite having “enforcement mechanisms available,” Pritzker said he looks forward to not having to enforce his order.
The Governor says he is eager to get the economy going, but is acting based on the data and advice from medical professionals and scientists.
McPeek and business owners in Harrisburg aren’t the only ones who are keen to reopen in spite of Pritzker’s order.
Sen. Dale Fowler (R-Harrisburg) says he could support reopening the economy region by region, when it is safe. He told the Southern Illinoisan that he hopes that Pritzker will work with Southern Illinois lawmakers to determine if reopening is possible in different areas.
He offered advice to city leaders to carefully review all the consequences that may occur, based on that plan. Health risks, financial and legal exposure are all things he thinks they should explore.
However, not every business owner in town supports the idea of opening while the governor believes it's unsafe.
“I don’t see a reason that we need to reopen the city. The reason I feel that way is we don’t want an outbreak,” said Christi Bailey, owner of Little Angels Learning Center, in an interview with WSILTV.
Rep. Darren Bailey (R) recently won a lawsuit against Pritzker regarding his stay-at-home order extension, which the courts said exceeded the governor’s power and violates Bailey's rights.
On April 24 though, Capitol Fax reported on Pritzker’s announcement to expand testing capabilities in conjunction with a decline in positive tests from 21 to 17 percent.
“We had tested 5660 people in the preceding 24 hours on Wednesday, and yesterday, we surpassed 9000 tests. Today [on Friday] we met our goal of 10,000 daily tests. In fact, we surpassed it with 16,124,” said Pritzker.
Harrisburg City Council says it’s not about defying the governor, but doing what’s best for the city.
"We're trying to get things changed legally, correctly. We're not just trying to jump up and say, 'Okay! Everybody come!' Because we understand," said Harrisburg city councilman Roger Angelly to WSILTV.
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