Restaurant owners excited about Michigan’s progress toward reopening, new COVID guidelines
May 24, 2021Click On Detroit
By Grant Hermes and Dane Kelly
DETROIT – Gov. Gretchen Whitmer officially revealed Michigan’s new accelerated timeline Thursday for eliminating COVID restrictions and returning to normal.
- Gov. Whitmer outlines Michigan’s new schedule for lifting COVID rules, getting life ‘back to normal’
There’s a lot of work for shops and restaurants to get back up and running. With major changes on the horizon, businesses are having to make decisions on how they can navigate back to normal.
“There’s a lot of pent up demand. You’re seeing it out there — people want to travel,” said Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association president Justin Winslow. ”We needed that. We supported the governor’s back to normal plan, but it was unclear when or if we would meet some of those guidelines.”
The Michigan Small Business Association praised Whitmer’s announcement and said ”Today marks an important step for small business owners everywhere.”
The Detroit Regional Chamber Business Group — which announced its own restrictions for the Mackinac Policy Conference in September — said they expect some more confusion as the summer starts.
“Businesses and, frankly, government are going to be feeling their way through these issues throughout the summer months and I think, just like there was confusion at the beginning of the of this crisis a year ago, there’s going to be some confusion as we come out of it,” said Sandy Barouah.
For a lot of these places, getting the workflow back is the big key. The MRLA said they think there should be more changes regarding unemployment benefits, but the biggest thing people can do to help is to be patient, be kind and leave tips.