For many Will County residents, a year of struggle and perseverance

It’s been almost exactly one year since the Old Fashioned Pancake House in Joliet, along with all other restaurants in Illinois, had to shut down indoor service as the novel coronavirus spread throughout the state.

Jim Zografos, the owner of the Old Fashioned Pancake House, remembered he couldn’t believe it when Gov. JB Pritzker made that announcement on March 15 of last year.

“I almost had a heart attack,” he said.

The last year has brought the biggest challenges Zografos has seen since he opened the restaurant in 1988.

As with many other business owners, he said the mitigations implemented to slow the spread of the deadly virus took a toll on his bottom line. During the first weeks of the pandemic, the restaurant saw about an 80% drop in revenue and Zografos said he had to lay off about half of his employees.

But with the help of loans from the federal Paycheck Protection Program and a grant from Will County, the restaurant stayed open.

In all, nearly 9,000 local businesses earned PPP loans, which the Will County Center for Economic Development estimated saved about 87,000 jobs. So far, the county has distributed almost $21 million in federal aid to more than 1,400 businesses.

Despite efforts to get relief out, Mike Paone, the vice president for government affairs at the Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce, said the swift shut down without more support really hurt.

“From the early stages, I think the biggest issue out there was the uncertainty and sometimes lack of clear communication,” Paone said.

At times, Paone and others in the business community criticized the state’s mitigation strategy.

Restaurants and bars in Will County were ordered to stop indoor service on three separate occasions: once last March, a second time in the late summer and again in the fall when COVID-19 cases spiked to the highest levels across the state.

Many restaurants flouted the restrictions even as the county’s test positivity rate reached 20% in mid-November.

But for Zografos, despite the financial hits, he understood why Pritzker and the state took action to prevent overcrowded hospitals and more death.

“I think he did the right thing,” Zografos said of the governor.

‘He has his days’

Christina Melesio said she was relieved last week when her son, Santos, finally returned to the classroom.

As Joliet Public School District 86 began returning small groups of students into its buildings for in-person learning this semester, Santos was one of the kids offered the opportunity because he requires special education classes.

When cases began to rise in Will County late last summer, just before school was set to restart, Melesio wondered which risk was worse: the potential for her son to fall behind if he stayed home, or be exposed to infection.

The decision was made for Melesio as District 86 began the year with fully remote learning. Still, she said it was a challenge to essentially fill the role of teaching assistant at home for her two kids.

“It was definitely harder than I thought to keep them on track,” Melesio said. “It was constant communication with teachers.”

Even though she lost her job, Melesio said she was lucky because her parents were able to help her and she eventually found work again. But, she said the pandemic opened her eyes to the struggle of some of her neighbors on the east side of Joliet. She said one of her son’s best friends couldn’t consistently attend school virtually because he didn’t have reliable internet access.

As for Santos, Melesio said the last year hasn’t been easy for him academically. His attention deficit hyperactivity disorder required Melesio to be diligent in keeping him on task.

“He struggles,” she said. “He has his days.”

Melesio added that after this year, she’s gained more appreciation for teachers and the job they have to do.

“I understand more what teachers go through,” she said. “It’s a struggle.”

‘We really are so, so polarized’

Of course such school closures didn’t occur without criticism from parents who argued the risk of students missing out on in-person learning outweighed the risk of the virus.

Sherrie Graham, who has three children in Plainfield School District 202, was one of the parents who organized demonstrations outside the district’s administration building as officials discussed the potential of returning to in-person learning last summer. District 202 elected to go remote as infections rose in Will County.

“I feel like they could have gone back safely in August and September,” Graham said, “especially when they already knew schools weren’t super spreaders.”

This month, Graham said she was happy her twin boys were able to attend high school twice a week and play their senior seasons on their respective sports teams. But as she reflected on the debates over in-person learning, she said she felt some proponents of a more cautious approach let “fear take hold of them.”

But, Graham added, she has taken time to remember to “check” herself and show empathy for other points of view.

“Not everyone is like me,” she said.

Those debates over weighing residents’ health and livelihoods, and the division they caused, is what has stood out about the past year for New Lenox Mayor Tim Baldermann.

“We are so, so polarized to the detriment of everybody,” Baldermann said.

As mayor, he argued for taking a “balanced” approach like advocating for tweaks to the state’s mitigations, but also encouraging residents to wear masks. The village, he said, even handed out over 20,000 masks near the start of the pandemic.

Baldermann thought the village did a good job following the science and “being honest with people,” even with backlash on social media where he said “everybody thinks they’re an expert.”

“We said all along ... that we were not going to approach this politically,” he said.

Pat McGuire, who was serving as a state senator until his term ended in January, also tried to combat that division with an empathetic appeal. On more than one occasion, he publicly implored residents to heed health guidance and think of the first responders and essential workers who were risking their own well-being for others.

“There’s been an enormous sacrifice for the common good,” McGuire said.

Given that, he said he hoped those sacrifices and struggles would engender more compassion among neighbors during an unprecedented time.

“Treat each other well,” McGuire said. “This has been a yearlong life and death experience and if anything should cause us to think twice before criticizing or condemning others, it should be this.”