Clay County Board Approves Back to Business Resolution

Clay County board members Monday voted unanimously to approve an advisory resolution supporting the Back to Business Illinois Reopening Plan.

The measure is the same as resolutions approved earlier by the boards in Effingham County and Fayette County. The resolution asks the state to move ahead with a quicker reopening of the state than the Governor's Restore Illinois plan.

The vote to approve the resolution was 14-0, and came after Clay County State's Attorney Andrew Koester explained the measure was only advisory in nature.

In a statement made available following the vote, Clay County Board Chairman Ted Whitehead issued a statement expressing his feelings and those of others on the county board as to the situation:

I, Ted Whitehead, Clay County Board Chairman, and speaking on behalf of the entire board, would like the public to know that the board has heard your concerns loud and clear regarding Governor Pritzker’s Executive Orders. We share many of your feelings. COVID-19 and the subsequent Stay at Home Orders have caused pain and grief in many different forms for many in our great county. If we could make that pain and grief go away tomorrow, we would in a heartbeat. We want life to go back to normal and we want our citizens to be able to go back to work and provide for their families. However, the Clay County Board cannot dictate what happens and doesn’t happen in regard to the Stay at Home Order in our county. The county board has received legal opinions from both the county’s liability carrier and the Clay County State’s Attorney that the board does not have any authority to pass a less restrictive stay at home order and any ordinance or resolution indicating it could do so would be void and non-effective. We will continue to do whatever we can to work with health department officials, local representatives, and other officials to continue to work on an alternative reopening plan that focuses on regionalization and the specific needs of this county. In the meantime, we continue to pray for our small businesses, citizens that have lost jobs, and others who have been affected by this crisis.”