• After new order, some mayors worry restaurants won’t survive.
Some suburban mayors are worried local restaurants could be driven out of business by the new Safer at Home order that restricts indoor seating to 25% capacity.
“I’m not happy at all,” Arlington Mayor Mike Wissman said. “We understand the health department has a job to do, but we’ve also expressed that we as elected leaders have a job to do too and our businesses are crying out for help right now.”
Announced Monday, the new Safer at Home order will be in effect beginning Dec. 26 through Jan. 22, longer than what the Collierville and Arlington mayors anticipated. The order was issued in response to rising COVID-19 cases in Shelby County.
“Originally we were only talking about two weeks of a hard shutdown and now we’re going 27 days, so the time is almost doubled,” Wissman said. “A mom-and-pop, locally owned business that maybe only has 10 to 15 tables can’t survive.”
Wissman and Collierville Mayor Stan Joyner said their main concern is putting dining capacity at 25% for almost a month. Both mayors said they could work with the rest of the latest health directive but worry about local restaurants.
“I wish there were no restrictions,” Joyner said. “I hate that the case numbers are going up, and these were some tripwires from back in the summertime but I never thought that we’d hit them.”
Joyner and Wissman said the restriction will hurt businesses more than do good.
Wissman said the directive is not realistic and most local restaurants will not make it out of the COVID-19 pandemic if their dining capacity is restricted below 50%.
Joyner said if the order can be amended he would like the health department to reconsider restaurant capacity.
“We have to look these business owners in the face and have the constant argument of ‘why does the health department get to dictate this and we, as elected leaders, don’t have a say,’ ” Wissman said.