The architects of the Restore Heart of Illinois regional reopening plan say that, for all intents and purposes, their plan is now the governor's plan.
Two weeks ago, Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis, Peoria County Board Chairman Andrew Rand, Peoria City/County Health Department Admnistrator Monica Hendrickson, and elected officials from other communities held a press conference to introduce their plan to allow an 11-county swath of Central Illinois to reopen more quickly than the statewide plan allowed.
Notably, the Restore HOI plan would have allowed restaurants and bars to seat customers inside at 50 percent occupancy immediately. That's a step that doesn't come until near the end of June at the earliest in Gov. Pritzker's "Restore Illinois" roadmap.
The plan used medical metrics like low COVID-19 positivity rates and ICU bed capacity to make the argument Peoria and 10 surrounding counties should operate independently of the larger "North-Central" health region defined in Pritzker's plan, which includes the Quad Cities and Rockford.
Ardis indicated at the May 13 press conference that they would proceed with implementation regardless of whether or not Pritzker gave his nod of approval, and Rand said no answer at all wouldn't be interpreted as a "no." But Hendrickson said a lot has changed since then as more information came out of Pritzker's administration.
"As this moved forward, and we were waiting for responses, and then there was different executive orders, different discussions about insurance liability, professional regulations, as well as even administrative code updates. We never wanted to put any of our entities in a situation where they had to determine about their liability and their risk and safe practices," she said.
Notably, the governor announced last week that restaurants and bars could resume some outdoor seating arrangements starting in phase 3 of his plan, slated to begin statewide this Friday after each "health region" reached the benchmarks outlined.
The governor never gave an official response to the Peoria County officials who submitted the plan to him earlier this month. But he did say there were several "well-crafted" plans which may have factored into some of his decision-making. The governor also warned communities deviating from "Restore Illinois" could face withholding of federal reimbursement for COVID-19 expenses.
Hendrickson said the Restore HOI plan has now "merged" with the governor's plan.
"I think people want to say Restore HOI was a failure or whatnot," she said. "But really, it was a way for us to provide guidance and get people to think about what it was going to be like to reopen, as well as to help advocate and support our state entities as they were moving into a very much new phase of this pandemic, which was to start reopening and releasing restrictions."
There are some variations among municipalities on the local level, such as setting temporarily-restricted business operating hours or making arrangements for street or sidewalk seating which wouldn't otherwise be permitted. But Peoria Community Development Director Ross Black said the differences are minor at most.
"There's no real significant light between the two plans," Black said. "There are areas where the city or the county or other local governments have to provide supplemental information."
A new Restore HOI website launched Thursday is a one-stop shop for guidelines and best practices for various Peoria-area businesses reopening in phase 3. There's also a "self-certification" allowing businesses to publicly note their compliance with the COVID-19 mitigation efforts. Extended outdoor dining applications for the city of Peoria and unincorporated Peoria County are also available.
McLean County held a special county board meeting Thursday to discuss going it alone on adoption of the original Restore HOI proposal. Galesburg Mayor John Pritchard said last Friday he was also gathering input about adopting the plan, though Knox County wasn't included in the original 11-county area.
Peoria County Administrator Scott Sorrel said Ardis and Rand are holding weekly Zoom calls with other elected officials around the region, so he's not sure why there's still confusion.
"As to why it hasn't translated across the region, I don't have a good answer to that. I know that we're doing what we can to try to get the word out how Peoria County and the city of Peoria are looking to implement the governor's plan," Sorrel said.
Hendrickson said there is only one plan people should follow for guidance, and it's the governor's.
"They should be looking at the Restore Illinois plan," she said.
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