Mokena Mayor 'Dumbfounded' Over New County Guidelines

MOKENA, IL — At Monday's Mokena Village Board meeting, Mayor Frank Fleischer said he is "dumbfounded" by new restrictions for region 7, which includes Will and Kankakee counties.

"I don't know what's going on," he said. "We have no way of putting the blame on any sector, but [Gov. J.B. Pritzker] going to close the bars, and he's going to close the restaurants, just willy-nilly."

Bars and restaurants are especially impacted by new regional guidelines. According to IDPH, mitigation measures include bars and restaurants closing at 11 p.m., and indoor dining and service is no longer allowed. You can see the full mitigation measures here.

Additional mitigations were triggered in region 7 due to the region's positivity rate. If a region has three consecutive days over 8 percent positivity rate, then new measures are implemented. The most recent data shows region 7 at 8.3 percent.

"I have no idea what he's doing, I don't think he has any idea what he's doing," Fleischer said of the governor. "And I'm sick, as a mayor and as village board members, of getting blamed for this. We have no control over this."

Fleischer said they could tell businesses to open up, but they don't know about insurance issues or if the health department would take away licenses.

"We're looking into this," Fleischer said. "I'm not going to sit down here and let this happen without looking into this, because this is ridiculous."