First McHenry County business pleads guilty, fined for violating COVID-19 rules on masking, social distancing

Creekside Tap in Algonquin became the first business in McHenry County to plead guilty to violating the state’s COVID-19 rules around masking and social distancing, resulting in a $75 fine for the business, an attorney with the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.

The bar’s owner, Valerie Wood-Hellyer, said the notice to appear in court came as “quite a surprise” as she felt they had followed the McHenry County Department of Health’s instructions when they were visited and came into compliance with the state’s rules.

“They gave no indication that they were going to issue a summons to appear in court,” Wood-Hellyer said in a written statement Wednesday. “In fact, they were very nice and understanding of how difficult our situation is, as we are understanding as to how difficult their job is right now.”

The health department currently has open complaint files for just less than 350 businesses accused of violating COVID-19 restrictions and has issued notices to appear in court to four businesses for mask and social distancing violations, Director of Environmental Health Patricia Nomm told the McHenry County Board of Health meeting Monday.

After pleading guilty Jan. 14, Creekside Tap was sentenced with a $75 fine, the lowest end of the $75 to $2,500 range of fines able to be considered for these kinds of charges, Norm Vinton, civil division chief for the state’s attorney’s office, said Wednesday.

“What the health department looks for is compliance,” Vinton said of the relatively low fine. “They really don’t want to punish people if they will comply, ... so in any of these negotiations and these guilty pleas, what we also include in there is that they will comply, that they’ll require their people to wear masks, require their patrons to wear masks and socially distance.”

The business will be required to pay court costs associated with their appearance on top of the fine, which Vinton said typically add up to a couple hundred dollars. This marks the first time a McHenry County business has made it this far in the enforcement process for COVID-19 restrictions.

Wood-Hellyer said her business chose to plead guilty to the charges because it was the “cheapest and easiest route to take,” although it always had a policy of “no mask, no service, no exceptions.”

“Who wants to spend thousands of dollars and hours upon hours in a courtroom?” she said.

Crystal Lake Health Food Store became the first McHenry County business to be charged in relation to the state’s rules on masking and social distancing when it was issued a notice to appear in court back in December.

The health food store requested more time to enter their plea first on Jan. 7 and again on Jan. 21, according to public court records. At their last court appearance, the store’s defense attorney, Greg Waggoner, told the judge that his client was planning to plead guilty through an affidavit signed by the store’s new owner, Vinton said, but this decision could always change leading up to their next court appearance on Feb. 4.

Crystal Lake Health Foods declined to comment after being contacted Wednesday afternoon.

The other two businesses whose case files have been forwarded over to the state’s attorney’s office for prosecution are Nedza’s Little Store, a food and liquor store in McHenry, and Xtreme Wheels, a roller rink in Crystal Lake, Vinton said.

Nedza’s Little Store will appear in court on Feb. 4, and Xtreme Wheels, the first non-food business to be charged, will have its court appearance on Feb. 11, Vinton said.

The owner of Nedza’s Little Store could not be reached for comment Wednesday, and Xtreme Wheels declined to comment.

The most complaints received from the public against a single business is about 30 and businesses, on average, receive about five visits from the health department’s environmental division, the entity in charge of responding to complaints, Nomm said at Monday’s meeting.

McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally announced in November that his office would not enforce the governor’s ban on indoor dining, or any of the state’s tiered restrictions, focusing instead on enforcing masking requirements, social distancing and capacity limits because those rules have clear enforcement guidelines detailed in the Department of Public Health Act.

The health department will continue to respond to all kinds of complaints related to COVID-19 and have “been in contact with the Illinois Department of Public Health legal counsel who have agreed to review the files regarding mitigation violations [indoor dining],” Public Health Administrator Melissa Adamson said in an emailed statement at the beginning of December.

A total of 192 local food businesses have been investigated by the health department on complaints regarding the state’s tiered restrictions, such as the ban on indoor dining, Nomm said.

Nomm said her department will have sent the case files for a total of 21 of those businesses over to the Illinois Attorney General’s Office as of Tuesday, but said that she was not sure what the office planned to do with them.