Vernon Hills COVID aid for restaurants would waive fees, tax
Garden Berry Cafe owners Jose Jasso and Selene Padilla at their Vernon Hills restaurant Friday. The village is proceeding with an assistance package to help struggling restaurants like Garden Berry Cafe. Brian Hill | Staff Photographer
A to-go order awaits pick up Friday at Garden Berry Cafe in Vernon Hills. The village board is expected to approve a restaurant assistance package that could total $250,000. Brian Hill | Staff Photographer
Jose Jasso, owner of Garden Berry Cafe in Vernon Hills, prepares breakfast Friday. Business at the restaurant is down about 60% since the start of the pandemic.
(AP Photo/Steven Senne)
The Vernon Hills Village Board is considering limiting the types of flavored vape, e-cigarette, and tobacco products a business can sell within the village limits. This potential policy, part of a larger discussion to ban the sale of these products within the village altogether, is arbitrary and would harm many small businesses in Vernon Hills.
Often times, the goal of these types of policies is to limit use of a “sinful” product, but these practices are discriminatory to small businesses. Village Manager Mark Fleischhauer reported, “15 businesses within town are licensed to sell tobacco and vaping products. About half those businesses sell flavored products, with one business in particular, Artisan’s Vaping, selling it as their main focal point. While nothing is formal on any ban, trustees kicked around the idea of a grandfather clause if such a thing materialized.”
Updated 12/17/2020 5:36 PM
A state directive to fly the American flag at half-staff to honor those who ve died in Illinois from COVID-19 has run its course and flags again should be raised to full height, Vernon Hills officials say.
Village officials say the symbolic gesture of lowering the flag historically has been reserved to recognize military members and first responders who died in the line of duty, or the death of notable public servants.
Now that a coronavirus vaccine has been approved and is being administered, the directive to fly the U.S. and state flags at half-staff should end as a symbol of hope for the future, village officials say.
Updated 12/11/2020 11:22 AM
The Shake Shack restaurant in Vernon Hills has become the international chain s first location with a drive-up window.
The standard feature elsewhere on the restaurant landscape is part of the New York-based company s larger Shack Track digital initiative sparked by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Vernon Hills Shake Shack opened in June 2019 at the Mellody Farm shopping center at Route 60 and Route 21. The company secured a special-use permit from the village this summer for the drive-up, which officially opened Monday.
Customers are required to pre-order through the Shack App and select the drive-up option. As we began to focus on the importance of accessibility and choice, the decision was made to incorporate into preexisting shacks such as Vernon Hills, said Steph So, vice president of digital experience at Shake Shack.