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player ready...Elmhurst Mayor Steve Morley wrote to Gov. J.B. Pritzker this week, telling him that many of the small businesses in Elmhurst may not survive with the newly implemented restrictions, particularly those prohibiting indoor dining.
Morley thanked Pritzker for his work to keep Illinoisans safe from coronavirus and the effects of the pandemic, a mission Morley said he shares. But he questioned Pritzker’s emphasis on restaurants as a source of virus outbreaks.
“I am asking you to reconsider your recent restrictions on local businesses,” Morley wrote. “In DuPage County, the total number of tracked outbreak cases directly linked to indoor dining is less than 1 percent, according to DuPage County Health Department data.”
Morley noted that restaurants have had indoor dining since June and suggested that recent rises in COVID-19 cases are coming from places other than restaurants.
In a phone conversation with Pioneer Press on Thursday afternoon, Morley said he was really hoping the governor could consider and accept some modifications to allow indoor dining. With the approach of colder weather, Morley said, dining in tents with two sides open was unlikely to provide a comfortable atmosphere for diners.
“Restaurants have put a ton of money into making their restaurants as safe as possible,” Morley said. That money has paid for partitions, personal protective gear for staff, even high efficiency air filtration systems. “I’d like the governor to look at that.”
Morley suggested one approach to safe indoor dining might be to restrict diners to their own “bubbles” or “pods,” members of their own families and households with whom they are already in contact.
Both in his letter to Pritzker and in his remarks Thursday, Morley stressed his first priority if the safety of the residents of Elmhurst.
“But I think we can do both,” he said. “We can keep residents safe and at least give our businesses a fighting chance.”
The full text of Morley’s letter to Gov. Pritzker can be found on the city’s website.