Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is expected to give the green light for bowling alleys, gyms, theaters, ice arenas and other facilities to reopen after being shutdown for more than five months.
An announcement could come as soon as Wednesday. It would be welcomed news for all the businesses that are still closed.
“We just really want to unlock the doors and go with it,” said Cindi Priskey with the Mt Clemens Ice Arena.
The announcement would include gyms, theaters, bowling alleys and ice arenas among other facilities. Some of the last to still be shut down.
“We are down to bare minimums in the account and I think that’s going to be huge to at least know that we can get fully open,” Priskey said.
If the governor gives the green light for these facilities to reopen they would have to follow social distancing guidelines, wear a mask and have proper sanitization in place.
“We think there needs to be some pretty strict protocols and we think it needs to be very place specific,” said CEO of the Detroit Regional Chamber Sandy Baruah.
Baruah added that these businesses need to reopen and it’s important for our economy moving forward.
“If we don’t have these businesses around then we are not going to have the employment base that we need and the tax base that we need," Baruah said. "So we need to not just be looking at today which is important but we need to be looking at tomorrow as well."
Business owners say it hasn’t been easy during the past several months but say they are ready to open up again safely and welcome back customers.
“We’ve been ready, we have all of our protocols in place our procedures in place, our staff members have already been trained like everything that we need. So, we’re ready,” Priskey said.
