CHAMPAIGN â Local authorities are seeking temporary restraining orders against two local restaurants that are continuing to operate with suspended health permits.
Hearings have been set for Thursday for temporary restraining orders filed by the Champaign County Stateâs Attorneyâs Office against Lil Bufordâs, 102 N. Long St., Tolono, and by the Champaign-Urbana Public Health Districtâs attorney, Ruth Wyman, against Merry-Annâs Diner, 1510 S. Neil St., C.
The health permits for both restaurants were suspended earlier this month after they continued to serve indoors in violation of a state order forbidding indoor service at bars and restaurants in an effort to control the spread of COVID-19.
Restaurateur asks county, What s the deal?
Tuesday, December 29, 2020 |
Chris Woodward (OneNewsNow.com)
Spanish
A restaurant owner in Illinois is speaking out against the Champaign area s COVID restrictions and is trying to protect the county s businesses and their patrons.
Jeff Buckler, owner of Lil Buford s Bar & Grill, recently told the Fox & Friends television program that there are hundreds of restaurants in Champaign, Illinois that are closed down, amounting to thousands of servers, cooks, and bartenders who are out of work. People are starving, and it s going to get bad here soon, he lamented.
Buckler went on to say that winter is a hard time for the restaurant business, regardless of the situation.
2 more Champaign County restaurant operators heading to court news-gazette.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from news-gazette.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
WBGZ Radio 12/23/2020 |
By Greg Bishop - Illinois Radio Network
In some of the Illinois counties where local officials are enforcing COVID-19 restrictions, some businesses continue to operate in defiance.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker s latest restrictions put all the state’s eleven regions of his Restore Illinois plan in Phase 4 Tier 3, which prohibits indoor service at bars and restaurants while retail businesses can allow customers in at 25 percent capacity. Attorney Thomas DeVore, who represents businesses across the state in COVID-19 challenges, said he s aware of only a handful of the state s 102 counties taking enforcement action.
It’s unclear when such statewide mitigations being used by local officials to justify the enforcement will be lifted. Pritzker gave no timeline.
CHAMPAIGN â As lawyers were working on a settlement agreement for Merry-Annâs Diner calling for indoor dining at that restaurant to cease, public-health officials suspended the health permit at yet another local establishment said to be defying a state order intended to slow down the spread of COVID-19.
Champaign-Urbana Public Health District Environmental Health Director Jim Roberts said the health permit for American Legion Post 71, 107 N. Broadway, U, was suspended Tuesday for continuing to serve customers indoors.
It was the seventh health permit local health officials recently suspended in Champaign County after owners disregarded warnings and continued indoor service â currently prohibited by the state at bars and restaurants.