PEORIA HEIGHTS, Ill. — Starting Friday, Peoria Heights bars and restaurants will take full advantage of Gov. J-B Pritzker’s plan to resume outdoor service.
Mayor Mike Phelan confirms the Village’s colorful “street seats” dining will return Friday, May 29, with social distancing and face mask rules in place for restaurant employees.
An email went out last week to see which Peoria Heights restaurants still wanted the Village’s seven “street seat” boxes, and they were all spoken for within 30 minutes.
“Those will go out tomorrow (Wednesday) between 8:30-9:00. We’re very excited to get our businesses back to some sort of normalcy. I think this is a first step,” said Village Administrator Dustin Sutton.
“We’re excited to get open and thankful to the governor for his leadership. We’ve been working on a plan, both Administration and Public Works, that’s safe and complies with the governor’s executive order, but lets people get out and patronize businesses,” Phelan said.
Peoria Heights is discussing ways to help businesses recoup what they’ve lost during the pandemic, including those businesses that aren’t set up for outdoor service.
“We’ve had a couple requests regarding being able to use the parking lots. So, we’re in the process of looking at all those other options,” Sutton said.