Phase Two officially kicks off at 5pm today and restaurants, especially at the beach, are looking forward to it,
Evans Trawick, of Cape Fear Seafood Company (which has locations in Leland, Porters Neck and Monkey Junction), said he was waiting to hear Gov. Cooper’s message, but said he was ready to open.
“Whether we can open at 25 or 50 percent, or 75 or 100, we have a plan,” he said.
Wilmington Star News
Other restaurants are obviously concerned about reopening on a historically busy weekend, but the rainy weather could actually alleviate some of those concerns
“The weather always makes the beach or breaks the beach,” said John Andrews, of South Beach Grill. “In this case I think it works to our favor. We are ready, but we want to make sure we open safely.”
While restaurants are allowed to partially, some businesses are not. Gyms were one one of the industries that has not been given the OK to reopen. Dr. Mandy Cohen tried to explain the reasoning today at the daily press briefing,
“You know as you work out you obviously breath more heavily and more intensely,” Cohen said. “This a viral respiratory pathogen. It is something that is expelled through your droplets of your mouth and your nose, which obviously come out with more force and can be at more distance when you are working out.
WECT
One gym owner in Wilmington was not buying it. Muscleworx owner, James Morgan, said this was the last straw and he is going to take his grievance to court,
“My plan is Tuesday morning at the latest is to have my attorney deliver a lawsuit asking for a temporary restraining order of the executive order 130 and any other executive order that prevents us from being able to open our businesses,” said Morgan
WECT
Morgan is not alone in contemplating a lawsuit challenging the Governor’s order. A group on salon owners have been raising money to challenge Cooper’s executive order in court,
“What I’m hoping to achieve is real simple: a decision upholding the North Carolina Constitution’s right to work,” Kitchen said Tuesday. “You have an unavailable right to work. It is directly in the constitution.”
Carolina Journal
The fact that salons are allowed to open does complicate matters, but it doesn’t mean they don’t have case. In fact, there are some very good arguments that these two possible cases could use. I will get to those in my next post…