Joe’s Tavern owner Shelly Salak hopes lawmakers win the next anticipated coronavirus political battle with the governor in Harrisburg, so she can get a break from personal and economic grief.
Her father Russell, who ran the bar in Bethlehem for decades, died of cancer on the March day Gov. Tom Wolf’s coronavirus business shutdown went into effect.
It hasn’t been open a single day since then.
But now-owner Shelly Salak sees real hope in an anticipated upcoming vote battle between Wolf and lawmakers. It focuses on a bill that would loosen some virus-safety restrictions on bars and restaurants, including allowing the use of bar seats during the pandemic.
That would make a huge difference for Joe’s.
“It is a make-or-break bill, for us to reopen,” said Salak, whose grandfather founded the corner bar 60 years ago. “Without the ability to have bar seating, we can’t open.”
Signs point to a behind-the-scenes fight over the bill. Wolf vetoed a different bill on Monday that would have given school districts the final say in running sports events during the pandemic.
Although the House had originally passed it with 155 votes ? far more than the 135 necessary to override a veto ? when it came time to vote against Wolf, 24 of his fellow Democrats in the Republican-dominated House changed their positions.
Republicans had harsh words for the “flippers,” but several of those who changed positions spoke publicly about their reasons.
The upcoming Legislature-approved bill also would let restaurants immediately operate at 50% capacity with social distancing and mask wearing.
It was passed by the Legislature earlier this week. The final tallies of “yes” votes were 145 in the House and 43 in the Senate.
A Wolf spokeswoman already has said he will veto the bill.
“It is going to come down to the lobbying pressure that the governor is going to put on certain Democrats to see if they will flip,” Chuck Moran, executive director of the Pennsylvania Licensed Beverage and Tavern Association.
John Longstreet, Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association president and CEO, said he thinks more lawmakers will stick with the bill this time than did last time.
The school-sports bill, Longstreet said, had new standards that included local options. The restaurant-bar reopening bill, he said, simply goes back to earlier standards by returning those businesses in Pennsylvania to where they were before Wolf’s July 15 order.
That order hit restaurants with a 25% indoor capacity limit.
The administration, he said, has never demonstrated that 50% capacity with social distancing and other safety measures is less safe than 25% capacity.
If it comes to a veto override, Longstreet said, “I think there is a real possibility that folks on both sides of the aisle will continue to stand with restaurants.”
Wolf spokesperson Lyndsay Kensinger said the state’s aggressive mitigation has kept virus case counts low, and nearly every state has put restrictions on bars and restaurants.
Those restrictions, she said, are rooted in science. She cited a recent CDC case study that found adults with positive COVID-19 test results were approximately twice as likely to have reported dining at a restaurant than were those with negative COVID-19 test results.
And, she noted, the administration already has allowed restaurants to return to 50% capacity if they self-certify they are following safety protocols.
Kensinger reiterated Wolf’s statements from earlier in the week that lawmakers should work on funding for child care and hazard pay for front-line workers and getting sick leave for Pennsylvanians, among other things.
There is evidence of how dire the Pennsylvania situation is, according to Longstreet.
Data from a national survey that included PRLA showed that if present business climate does not change, 63% of Pennsylvania restaurants expect to be permanently closed in six months. The broader group of U.S. responses puts the national figure at 38%, according to Longstreet.
The far-more-negative outlook in Pennsylvania, Longstreet said, has to be due to Wolf’s “draconian mitigation measures.”
Joe’s Tavern closed March 17 in the initial pandemic business shutdown. It has stayed closed in part because of the no-bar-seat issue, Salak said.
Her father, who was 81, died March 17.
She said running the place was the only job he ever had after he left the U.S. Air Force in 1960. The atmosphere he and his father before him created, she said, was a neighborhood corner nook where people went to talk and socialize.
Right now, she said, its immediate future depends on what happens in Harrisburg.
Virus update
Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania Department of Health on Friday reported 806 more cases of the coronavirus to bring the total to 154,203. The newly reported cases include 17 in Lehigh County and 14 in Northampton County.
The totals are 5,568 cases in Lehigh and 4,457 cases in Northampton.
The state also reports two more deaths to make the total 8,081.
There are 435 people hospitalized for the virus Friday afternoon. That statistic has trended generally lower for months.
Morning Call Capitol correspondent Ford Turner can be reached at fturner@mcall.com.
