WEST FRANKFORT – The mayor of West Frankfort is giving business and restaurant owners who have been shut down for weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic the opportunity to open back up.

Tom Jordan feels businesses understood the need for the shutdown at the beginning of the pandemic because we didn’t know what we were facing. But when Governor JB Pritzker extended his stay-at-home order until the end of May, Mayor Jordan says panic set in and business owners had to start making decisions about what to do next about their businesses and employees.

Mayor Jordan says he doesn’t have the authority to override the governor’s order, but says he does have the right to ask the governor why we are going until the end of May. The mayor says if the order extends into June, our businesses won’t be able to make it saying “they’re done, we’re toast and there won’t be anything to open.”

The mayor told us what he told business owners at a recent City Council meeting about opening back up.

Mayor Jordan feels the area is already in phase three of the governor’s Restore Illinois plan and would like for the governor to revisit his plan to let restaurants, bars and other businesses in phase four go ahead and open back up now in order to stay in business.

Businesses wishing to reopen should contact West Frankfort City Hall.