With outdoor planting season here for much of Pennsylvania, Republican state lawmakers are beginning to press legislation to force Gov. Tom Wolf's administration to allow garden centers to open even while the state is shut down to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Some garden centers remain shuttered under Wolf's statewide March 19 order for “non-life-sustaining” businesses to close. But home gardeners are beginning planting outdoors for the summer growing season, and relaxing that order could be weeks away for much of Pennsylvania.
“It makes you almost want to sit down and cry when you see people pull in to the parking lot and see that the sign says ‘closed,'" said Corey Wray, owner of Wray's Landscaping in Lewistown, along Route 322 between Harrisburg and State College.
Meanwhile, shrubs, seedlings and other lawn and garden supplies are being sold by big-box stores, farming supply stores or competitors that may sell farm supplies, building materials or other qualifying goods that allow them to stay open.
Wray sought a waiver from the Wolf administration before Easter and was told that he could not open his retail operation, where for five years he has sold seeds, seedlings, shrubs, saplings, gardening tools, grass seed, landscaping stone and more.
Wray can still operate his landscaping service, and he has a greenhouse where he is growing plants, but now is the crucial period where he sells heavily to home gardeners.
Part of his pain is that Wray is coming off a weak snow-plowing season. Another part is watching others sell the same goods.
Wray said he would consider defying the state's closure order, but worries that he would lose his various business licenses and a federal loan he just received under a government program intended to help small businesses devastated by the coronavirus outbreak.
“If it’s going to be fair, they ought to make it fair,” Wray said. “Nothing against Lowe's, but they're getting rich and we’re struggling every day.”
Asked Friday at a video news conference about the potential for waivers for garden centers, Wolf said his administration is “always having conversations but again, we’re looking to really start the reopening process on May 8” when Wolf had said he will considering easing his shutdown orders in less-affected regions of the state.
Since Wolf ordered all “non-life-sustaining” businesses to shut down, his administration has pared back its guidance for some business sectors and issued waivers on a case-by-case basis to individual businesses that applied.
He also extended his stay-at-home order to every corner of the state on April 1. Aside from May 8, he will allow construction to restart next Friday.
On Friday, four Republican state senators said they will introduce legislation to force Wolf's administration to issue waivers from the orders so that garden centers can reopen while adhering to social distancing and other guidelines issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to protect employees and customers.
"With the seasons quickly changing, we can no longer afford to wait to have these important businesses approved for waivers to open,” Sen. Ryan Aument, R-Lancaster, said in a statement. “The summer and fall harvests may be weeks and months away, but the seeds needed to grow into what will eventually become hundreds of millions of pounds of produce for our communities need to be planted soon.”
In other coronavirus-related developments:
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CASES
Pennsylvania’s COVID-19 death toll rose by 71 to 1,492, the state health department reported Friday, with about 1,600 additional people testing positive for the virus that causes the disease.
Statewide, more than 38,600 people have tested positive, according to the latest Health Department data. The number of infections is thought to be far higher because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected with the virus without feeling sick.
For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms that clear up in a couple of weeks. Older adults and people with existing health problems are at higher risk of more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death.
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CURBSIDE LIQUOR PICKUP
Hundreds more state-owned liquor stores will be open for curbside pickup starting Monday, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board announced.
The agency said it is expanding curbside pickup to 389 additional Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores across the state, meaning that nearly all of the state’s liquor stores will now offer the service.
The move to expand curbside pickup follows Wolf’s unpopular closure of the state-owned liquor stores. The state’s online ordering system has been unable to keep up with overwhelming consumer demand, though it has recently increased capacity.
Most stores will offer curbside service Monday through Saturday. Stores will take orders by phone, accepting the first 50 to 100 orders placed each day. Each customer is limited to no more than six bottles.
In its first four days, the curbside pickup program filled 38,145 orders totaling $3.64 million, according to the liquor board.
