Local business defying state orders

By Kalie Gabbard

          Governor Pritzker recently put more restrictions on businesses in our local area, and Route 40 of Milledgeville was just one of many small businesses that chose to defy the order. 

          Route 40 located in Milledgeville of Carroll County has been open for just over a year, their opening date being May 1, 2019. The owners, Mike and Judy Dalipim had bought the old Nana’s Pizza building that had previously burned and needed repairs. 

          In recent news, the Governor of Illinois has issued tighter restrictions for Region one. The restrictions require businesses to reclose, or switch to a drive-thru only service.

          After only being reopen for a couple months, small businesses such as Route 40 could hardly afford to close again.

          Route 40 originally decided to close their doors after hearing the state orders, but after a couple days, they went back to serving inside. When asked if they thought it was the right idea the owners replied “We feel like it is safe to stay open. We are trying to follow all the regulations and we make sure the environment is as safe as it can be for our customers and staff.”

          While many small businesses’ main concern is the financial situation the Covid restrictions have brought upon their businesses, the owners at Route 40 said their main motivation behind staying open was their customers. They reported, “The community is one of the main reasons we kept our establishment opened.” 

          They also said that “Our only concern is that if the government makes us go back to stage 1 that our seniors have no restaurant to eat in.” 

          The staff has also been very supportive in the process of staying open and maintaining the café during this time. 

          When asked about the business and during the pandemic, waitress Briana Dalipi responded by saying, “The business during the pandemic was definitely hard, closing down, not seeing all our customers as we did on a daily basis… We have had so much support from the communities while we were closed and they made sure we knew they had out back.”

         The customers are very pleased with the decision as well. Customer Steven Adee said that he is very supportive of the café staying open – “Not many companies are willing to go out and defy the governors orders, and if they do it is normally out of the sake of the business, but the café is humble in that they decided to stay open, based upon feedback from customers and the community.”