Business owners endorse judge's ruling on Wolf orders, but say damage already done

David Magill said Monday he felt Gov. Tom Wolf’s shutdown orders were unconstitutional from the start, but he didn’t think a federal judge ruling them as such would change much because the governor is appealing and many businesses already have suffered.

“I think that he should concede his loss, and he should let the service industry open their businesses,” said Magill, owner of Mogie’s Irish Pub in Lower Burrell.

Magill said he thinks Wolf “overstepped his bounds” by closing what the state deemed nonessential businesses.

“My goal is to make sure that one man doesn’t have this much power again, he can never do this to us again. This one’s done. He’s already cooked far too many people for anybody to rebound from this,” said Magill, who is scheduled to speak Wednesday in Canonsburg at a state Senate committee meeting on the pandemic’s effect on the service industry.

Wolf’s closure orders crushed the busy season for Gold ’n Tan tanning salon in Greensburg, said salon manager Sara Falsy.

“We lost it all — the vacations, the weddings, prom and graduation,” said Falsy, of Greensburg.

In a typical year, spring business “carries us for the rest of the year,” Falsy said.

Even when they were allowed to reopen, Falsy said the number of tanning beds they were permitted to use were reduced. They also lost the spray-tanning business, Falsy said, because “you can’t give a spray tan with a face shield.”

Falsy said the fallout from covid-19 continues to hurt business, as people seem hesitant to get a tan and others do not want to wear a mask, which is required.

William Tavarez, owner of Willy T’s Cuts in Tarentum, was happy to hear about Monday’s judgment — calling the judge’s ruling “the truth.”

“We shouldn’t have had to shut down,” Tavarez said. “I don’t understand how that’s possible. You have to feed your family.”

Tavarez said his salon was closed for roughly three months, resulting in a loss of between $36,000 to $45,000. While he was able to file for a Paycheck Protection Program loan to help offset his losses, he didn’t receive unemployment compensation until his salon already had reopened.

“They should have to pay us what we would have missed out on,” Tavarez said. “That’s the way I look at it. But that will never happen.”

At Szechuan Garden in Greensburg, the shutdown of the business in the spring resulted in the loss of waiters and waitresses, restaurant co-owner Mike Liao said.

With its seating capacity cut from 50% to 25%, then back to 50% recently, the restaurant could not continue to offer inside dining with limited seating, Liao said.

“There’s no sense to have someone on board” serving as a wait staff with the restrictions, Liao said. Instead, the restaurant focuses on takeout business.

Heather Erb, who owns Cloud 9 Massage, Facials & More with locations in Harrison and Oakmont, said that while a judge may have ruled the restrictions unconstitutional, the damage already has been done.

“We can’t go back and change the time that we were closed. The loss is already there,” Erb said.

Erb said Wolf had no right to close down businesses the way he did, especially if people were taking precautions such as cleaning, sanitizing, wearing masks and respecting people’s boundaries.

“I do find it unconstitutional that he did shut us down in that manner. It hurt a lot of businesses,” Erb said. “There’s a lot of businesses that are still closing or unable to survive at the capacity limits that he’s placed on people.”

Todd McDevitt, owner of New Dimension Comics in the Pittsburgh Mills mall in Frazer, said the decision came “kind of a little too late.”

“So far, we’re recovering well,” he said. “I think the recovery has a lot to do with folks were pent up and had cabin fever. My customers want to continue with their hobby.”

McDevitt, who owns five locations in Pennsylvania and one in Ohio, said inconsistency between the states has been a challenge.

“We had completely different rules (in Ohio). Even now they’re different,” he said, explaining that Ohio’s regulations are less strict. “We were open longer; we were open earlier.

“I still haven’t had things explained to me in a rational way,” he said. “When I go to a restaurant to get a beer, how does that affect the virus if I have something to eat? They lose credibility.”

McDevitt said he was denied an exception to reopen five weeks after applying for it. At one point, he had heard they would be able to reopen on a limited basis, which he thought he could pull off, but that never happened.

— Reporting by Tribune-Review staff writers Madasyn Lee, Joe Napsha and Brian C. Rittmeyer.