As Illinois moves into Phase 3 of the Governor’s Restore Illinois plan, restaurants and bars are able to reopen with outdoor seating. In the City of Monmouth, special permits have been issued to allow businesses to temporarily use outdoor seating. Community Engagement Director Ken Helms has more:
“What we did is we established an administrative permit that costs nothing whatsoever. All the business has to do is contact us and then we have some guidelines that we want them to follow. None of them supersede what the state or the CDC, IDPH, the Governor’s office, or local health department regulations. These just give us a little bit of more flexibility,” Helms reports.
A large number of permit applications have already been submitted to the city. As part of the guidelines, the businesses will be required to have hand sanitizer on site; employees will have to undergo symptom screenings before working each day, and other precautions that coincide with Health Department guidelines already in place.
