Posted on 07/17/2020 1:07:12 PM PDT by lightman
Frustrated by Gov. Tom. Wolf’s latest COVID-19 restrictions on the food service industry, restaurant owners in central Pennsylvania are armed for a fight.
Representatives from dozens of establishments gathered earlier today at Bonefish Grille in Lower Allen Township to express their dissatisfaction with the governor and his recent mandates. In the coming days, they plan to spread word about a petition demanding change.
“How can one person have this much power? How can one person go across our constitution, stomp on it and never look back? And there’s nothing we can do? He has too much power,” said organizer Matt Flinchbaugh, owner of Flinchy’s in Lower Allen Township.
On Wednesday, Wolf ordered restaurants, bars and breweries to dial back capacity limits from 50 to 25 percent. In addition, seating around bars is prohibited and establishments are no longer permitted to serve alcoholic beverages unless patrons order sit-down, dine in meals.
Wolf said that the reason for the rollback in freedoms associated with the green phase of his reopening plan is due to fears about a new coronavirus case surge.
But owners say their industry has been unfairly targeted, and the latest restrictions make it nearly impossible to survive, be profitable and maintain full staffing. Plus, they say their hands are tied because of the Supreme Court’s recent decision maintaining Wolf’s authority over the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
State legislators, including Pa. senators Mike Regan, a Republican from Northern York County, and John DiSanto, Republican from Dauphin County, as well as John Longstreet, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association, took to the podium.
Regan urged those in attendance to rise up against the governor.
“This one man is making decisions for everybody and it’s crippling Pennsylvania and it’s crippling business, and most recently, it’s probably going to kill a lot of restaurants and bars here in Pennsylvania,” Regan said.
Melissa Bova, Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association’s vice president of legislative affairs, announced an online petition will be circulated among restaurant owners to share with their customers. The petition will urge the Wolf administration to bring restaurants back up to 50 percent capacity.
A similar petition is being circulated by Montgomery County restaurant owners, Bova said.
“We are going to be using a platform that will show whose constituents the people who signed the petition are a part of, so we can go to those people who are putting out the vote right now, and say, ‘Five thousand people in your district say this is BS and you need to do something,‘” she said.
“We are going to use those numbers to push the needle,” Bova added.
Restaurant owners in attendance Friday said they are ready to begin collecting signatures.
“Is it a futile attempt? Who knows. At least it brings awareness,” said Don Carter, Jr., owner of several establishments including Dockside Willies and Duke’s in Wormleysburg.
He said he’d like to see more consistency from the governor’s office and is upset the restaurant industry was targeted earlier this week with no mention of other businesses such as dirt track races, Hersheypark or casinos.
Themi Sacarellos, one of the owners of the Round the Clock Diners in York County, called the petition a good first step. In recent weeks, Round the Clock made headlines for defying Wolf’s orders to shut down dine-in service for customers. The owners were fined by the Department of Agriculture.
“People should voice their opposition,” Sacarellos said. “Let the people speak up, if they want to write their name on a petition, I think they should.”
The restaurant association’s Longstreet said they have been working with the governor for about two months to add sense to some regulations pertaining to restaurants. Initially, he said they were able to get outdoor dining, drinks to-go and expansion of premises, but somewhere along the way something changed.
This week, he said Wolf’s administration consulted with the association and agreed to maintain the 50 percent capacity limits.
“All of a sudden out of the clear blue without any notice, they reduced it to 25 percent. There will be no statistics that show 25 percent makes sense because they don’t exist,” he said. “The only significance to that number is thousands of Pennsylvania restaurants close permanently and hundreds of thousands of employees are out of work.”
He urged owners if they can’t win in the courts, they will win in the court of public opinion.
“We’ve got to rein this in and get back to 50 percent now,” he said. “Now we need all of you to fight this fight through the court of public opinion.”
In the meantime, today Wolf Governor urged Congress to provide financial relief to restaurants by passing the Real Economic Support That Acknowledges Unique Restaurant Assistance Needed to Survive Act. The bipartisan bill is designed to provide $120 billion to help “Independent restaurants with the economic challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Pennsylvania was finally able to overcome the fraud of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and vote read in to the night of nov 8 2016
They couldn’t cheat their way out of it like they usually do
Pennsylvanians are pretty smart and I think we’re going to see at least a 10 point win for Donald Trump this time
Regular Democrats who always vote Democrat have to see what the Democratic Party is now
it is anti-them!!!!
Yes you restaurant owner!!
yes you barbershop!!!
yes you little league team !!
yes you anybody who they considered “nonessential”
all you parents with kids that are small in school!!! all y’all!!!
They could care less how much this hurts you !!and they know this is a complete fraud!!!
Wake up demoncraps!! Wake the hell up !!!
y’all? don’t you mean yinz?
Patronized both Round the Clock Diners in York a couple weeks ago. Going back to PA
next Fri for 5 days or so, all Pitt or western PA (fly/car rental).At least there will be the 25% capacity in Allegheny county.On July 3 and 4 I wound up getting takeout from Mineo’s pizza, Squirrel Hill and Primanti’s Oakland/Pittsburgh with beer or soda and had to take it back to my motel.Indoor-outdoor eatery dining in that
county had just been banned
It can be worse on private clubs.
Liquor control bureau really nitpicks them.
The PA law is being broken by extending emergency longer than 90 days.
Recall or impeach gov and supreme ct.
my local AMERICAN LEGION was just getting back on it’s
feet after the last phony shutdown and WOLFMAN strikes
again. Closed for 3 mos-—NO INCOME but monthly
expenses-—insurance, utilities, maintenance etc.
Employees got on unemployment, got off & now back on!!
Ignore his orders. He cannot possibly arrest and detain the entire population of Pennsylvania.
“Government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Now, read my tag line.
Sounds good -—BUT -—no one will risk losing
the gov’t issued liquor license!!??
The bastards have you by the @#$%^&!!
BINGO
With all of Tommie the Commie’s lockdown orders the “non essential” businesses that were most singled out and scrutinized were:
Barbers - Licensed by Department of Health
Beauticians - Licensed by Department of Health
Restaurants - Licensed by Department of Agriculture
Bars & Clubs - Licensed by Bureau of Liquor Control
The state issued license hangs like the sword of Damoclese.
The gap between reopening and Wednesday's change in rules was spent by restaurant managers and owners adapting to a partial business, that is if they could even afford to reopen or find the staff to do so. Wednesday's rule changes now sends restaurant workers back to the street because their workplaces are now overstaffed. Or they get sent back to the streets because the restaurant cannot afford to operate at 25% of capacity.
Another twist to all this is that a lot of people in the restaurant business, the ones that wanted to work, went looking for new jobs because it is just a real pain in the ass to work short staffed. There has been a consolidation of employees to the best restaurants. What if they got a new job and were to start that job after Wednesday? They quit their previous job and now are left hanging. My daughter, who is a restaurant GM is in exactly this situation. Fortunately, her new job is secure. At least for now, because where she is going is already so short staffed business that they are still clamoring for bodies. Hopefully her job will continue to be available.
That situation is not the same everywhere. Overhead in the restaurant biz is big. This is going to push a lot of owners into bankruptcy. They haven't had cash flow because of the original shutdown, and an even further degraded occupancy puts them deeper in the red.
Politicians don't know jack schiff about running a small business. And even if they did have experience with a business, they certainly didn't have experience in everyone else's business. So that leaves them utter clueless about the demands they are placing on businesses.
This is why I was stark raving mad yesterday. I swear that I will screw every Rat that I have a chance to. Paybacks are going to be a world of hurt.
Supreme Court already sided with Wolf because the state is in a state of emergency, which he’s refused to change.
Go to any restaurant that is open. They are all hurting.
BTW They’re also presenting a bill limiting a Governor’s emergncy power’s to 30 days...curretnly Wolf can extend it at will.
Look, the guy wants federal dollars and flat out said that he wouldn’t lift the emergency declaration because he’d loose those dollars........In other words he’s happy to let PA businesses suffer to pad the states and his own coffers.....he’s a massive control freak!!!!
Don't get me start of liquor laws in PA. The LCB is caulk full of lazy ass union/state employees. Imagine getting a job at a State Store as a clerk. (Yeah, I know they are called Wine and Spirits stores now, but it they are nothing compared to privately owned establishments in other states.) You get a full pension, full medical benefits and paid holidays, vacation and personal leave. All of that for running a damn cash register that any 15 year old can do. These scum have no shame. They are not makers. They are takers through the threats of their thug unions. I can't wait until PA teacher and employee unemployment fund goes belly up. They'll wish that they actually did something with their lives. Let them rot in their old age. Karma is a bitch.
Remember the Chrysler bailout?
As part of that all Chrysler dealerships owned by republicans r=were shut down.
Democrats are trying to starve large Trump and/or republican donors.
PA liquor laws are insane.
‘He urged owners if they can’t win in the courts, they will win in the court of public opinion.’
ha...haha...hahaha...hahahahahahahah.....
‘Only Philly and the central parts of Pittsburgh are going to hang with Dems if this keeps up.’
add Lackawanna, Monroe, Centre, Dauphin, and Chester...
‘but if I owned a restaurant like this I would be taking a serious look at turning it into a private club.’
hmmm; interesting...
‘Pennsylvanians are pretty smart and I think we’re going to see at least a 10 point win for Donald Trump this time’
I’ve been in PA for forty years; what I see most is a bunch of sheeple...
‘These scum have no shame. They are not makers. They are takers through the threats of their thug unions’
I think we both have come to the conclusion that it is time to wave goodbye to this f&$#ing state as soon as possible...
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