About two weeks after Gov. Tom Wolf temporarily banned indoor dining, several restaurants in Pennsylvania have been ordered to shut their doors for defying the mandate.
Earlier this week, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture announced it has ordered about 40 restaurants to close for allowing patrons to eat indoors. The inspections took place Dec. 14-20.
Under the governor’s latest mandate, restaurants are not permitted to serve patrons indoors for three weeks ending Jan. 4. In addition, restaurants must continue to follow rules requiring employees to wear masks, while they offer carryout and takeout and serve diners outdoors.
Restaurants ordered to close include several in central Pennsylvania such as Dad’s Garage Grill & Burger House in Mechanicsburg, 230 Café in Highspire and Tony’s Pizzeria & Restaurant in Highspire.
230 Cafe co-owner Shelby Reitz said the restaurant stayed open for sit-down service through today, Dec. 24, to financially help employees through Christmas Day.
“Our major concern was our employees getting to Christmas. None of this had to be with the politics of it. What’s important to me are my employees, family and customers,” Reitz said.
Unfortunately, he said they received an injunction for defying the Department of Agriculture’s order to close. Starting Dec. 27, Reitz said the cafe will be open for takeout only through Jan. 4.
Restaurants that continue to defy the closing orders and operate in any manner, according to the Department of Agriculture will be referred to the Pennsylvania Department of Health for further legal action.
About 79 visits to restaurants throughout the state were complaint-driven based on establishments offering dine-in service, said Shannon Powers, Department of Agriculture spokeswoman. The restaurants are among 180 establishments issued warnings by the department
The 40 restaurants were ordered to close for refusing to comply, while the others either agreed to stop dine-in service or had already done so, Powers said.
Some restaurant owners have unsuccessfully filed lawsuits against Wolf’s indoor dining ban. On Wednesday, a judge refused a plea by two central Pa. restaurants and a trade association to end enforcement of the indoor dining ban.
U.S. Middle District Judge Christopher C. Conner concluded his court cannot intervene in the absence of a civil rights violation which the Hershey Independent Restaurant Association and the owners of the Fenicci’s of Hershey and The River House Bar & Grill failed to demonstrate.
Other agencies in the state including the Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement oversee COVID-19 enforcement. The agency recently cited dozens of licensed establishments in the state.
Powers emphasized the majority of restaurants in Pennsylvania are following mitigation orders.
“The 40 restaurants closed by order represent a tiny subset of the more than 40,000 retail food businesses licensed and inspected by the department, a number that doesn’t include the state’s most populous cities and counties whose health departments inspect restaurants,” she said.
Complaints, whether general food safety concerns or those related to COVID-19 mitigation efforts, can be filed online.
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Governor Tom Wolf, his Gestapo and the Stasi. Oh, don’t you Americans love the secret police, of these communist Governors? This is America?
DO as the State commands OR ELSE!! DA!
Tom Wolf needs to be recalled or give up his job
I don’t understand what the heck is going on. These governors do not have the authority to suspend the Constitution indefinitely. I understand they may briefly do so in an emergency. They are turning emergency power into dictatorial power, well outside a Constitution government. I am trying to keep my language civil, but how in Gods name are we allowing them to do this? This is not Germany of the 30’s. We desperately need to return to being a Constitution Republic. Folks it worked for almost 250 years. Communism, Socialism, and Fascism have always failed when and where ever they have been imposed. We are no different.
WHO ‘cares’, if thye have the authority.. THEY ARE DOING IT. The media’s covering for them, and the COURTS seem to be content, to LET THEM get away with it.
stimulus checks from a government who put you out of business is communist.
Remember, when pelosi said “The 1,000$ trump is giving you, from the tax breaks, is BREAD CRUMBS”..
IF a GRAND Is crumbs, what the hell is 600 bucks??
This overreaching control from the elected officials which is supported by the courts & media will cause a horrific backlash from the people.
History has shown this over and over…..When the ruling elitist class forgets there place and becomes tyrannical
they will be brought down and many times very uncivilized.
Maybe at one time, that might have happened.. This days, i see too many people just willing, to LIE DOWN and take it.
In a time when the authorities had flintlock rifles and the citizens had flintlock rifles, there was no way the kind of overreach we see today could have happened. Now when we have the police and they have their own shock troops (SWAT), homeland security (brown shirts), and they now have added the Coastguard to their arsenal, and they can draw upon most light weapons including armed helicopters and military drones. They have heavy armored vehicles, including light machine guns, sub-machine guns, and actual assault weapons (which are select fire and not available to civilians). They have access to military grade explosives, and light tanks. The Coastguard are military except when that would run afoul of the “Posse Comitatus Act, when suddenly they are not. How does the civilian population stand up to this level of firepower. If it comes to it, I will die defending the Constitutional Republic, but the truth is I will die none-the-less.
In the event of an armed rebellion there will be only one way to equal the odds. Those who have the superior weapons will obviously have them taken away by those fighting for justice.
You assume we’ll even GET an armed rebellion.. Right now i don’t see it happening.