Coronavirus Delaware County: Barber Shop Owner Claims State 'Threatened To Prosecute Me' If She Reopened Shop
MEDIA, Pa. (CBS) -- Appointments were booked for an expected reopening of a Delaware County barber shop in defiance of Gov. Tom Wolf's stay-at-home orders. But the owner decided to stay closed after she says the state threatened to revoke her license.
"Let me earn my living," Nichole Missino said.
Outside Giovanni's Barbershop in Media on Saturday morning, there was a fight to reopen Pennsylvania entirely.
"I'm an American, I need to work," Missino said. "We've been closed for two months. I haven't received a dime from anywhere, I haven't gotten unemployment, I haven't gotten a PPE loan."
Missino says her employees haven't either. Still, she's been busy transforming inside her business, installing partitions in-between stations and ordering face shields to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Missino intended to defy Gov. Wolf's stay-at-home order Saturday and open to the public.
"We actually decided to stay closed today, Missino said.
The reason for the change of heart?
"The chief of police actually threatened with occupancy certificates being pulled," Missino said. "State board came in and also threatened to prosecute me and also threatened to revoke my licenses."
"The governor has to go back and relook at what he's doing," Rep. Chris Quinn said.
So what does Quinn suggest?
"We won't be open this summer unless we take the nursing home numbers out of the equation," Quinn said. "Pennsylvania is going broke. Not just the business owners, I'm on the appropriations committee in Harrisburg. We're going to be close to $6 billion short right now."
No matter how you crunch the numbers, some say the cost of opening now isn't worth it.
"I feel so badly for all the people who are out of work and who are going to suffer, but if you're dead, you can't have a business," Janet Dzubow, who opposes reopening, said.
Police say it's only had to cite one business in Lebanon County for not complying with the governor's order.
While Missino plays it safe, she hopes the governor hears her message.
