Two Danville aldermen say they think it is time for the city to do something to enforce COVID-19 rules locally, even if it is as simple as sending businesses letters to ask that they comply with regulations.
Alderman Brenda Brown said during Tuesday night’s city council meeting that she is concerned about the new strain of the coronavirus coming into Danville in the next few weeks, and what the city could do about it.
Bob Iverson says there are too many COVID-19 cases occurring in Danville and Vermilion County right now. He says he thinks now is the time for some restaurants to have to face having their licenses suspended over refusal to obey the state’s rules, and added that some businesses could possibly build heated igloos to serve customers.
Both aldermen suggested that Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. could send letters to certain businesses encouraging them to comply.
Mayor Williams says he did confront the manager of the local Walmart store, asking that their employees wear face masks at all times. But he says employees have found it hard to enforce mask mandates, particularly with customers who take their masks off once they get inside the store.
“As soon as they get in, they take it down or take it off and aren’t wearing it properly, and they said they just didn’t have enough people to go around and follow people to make sure they were putting on their masks and stuff like that,” he says.
The mayor says that the majority of new cases recently have come from the Danville Correctional Center, and he said that there is a greater risk of COVID spread in private gatherings. Iverson also added that many people might have the false assumption that they are safe in small gatherings.
“It doesn’t have to be a big gathering,” Iverson explained. “Four, five or six people getting together–you’d think they’re all in your bubble, but maybe one of them has gone somewhere and caught something.”
Iverson says state courts have repeatedly sided with Governor J.B. Pritzker’s office regarding restaurant restrictions and mask wearing. But he also says that the Vermilion County Health Department is dealing with contact tracing while at the same time having to administer vaccines, and does not have time to enforce the rules on local restaurants.
