Minnesota Bar Owner Rapidly Crowdfunds Over $171,000 for Legal Battle After Early Reopening

STEARNS COUNTY, MN (trfnews.i234.me) The owner of Shady’s bar chain around St. Cloud in Stearns County, Minnesota has quickly raised $171,000 for a legal fight regarding his decision to open his bars early during the COVID-19 shutdown.
everybody today is Saturday May 16th Christmas Shady’s incorporated giving you guys a little update on everything that happened over the week met up with all the resort owners a lot of the resort hours on Mille Lacs Lake smoked with some fishing guides the odd Mille Lacs Lake on Lake of the Woods on a few of the other places but with some campground owners who are also closed right now also some rental businesses that do they rent all kinds of things out general rental places like that these places are suffering just like every bar and restaurant we got bad news we got bad news yesterday at about 4:30 4:45 the Attorney General called me and let me know that if we open we will be given a 25 thousand dollar fine per location per occurrence with no maximum of how many times it can happen per day with six locations we cannot afford 150 thousand dollar fine we couldn’t afford it before we still we can’t afford it now it’s most certainly after being closed for 8 weeks which feels like three years for most of us I’m giving you guys an update because we cannot open our bars on Monday we our hands are tied I thought a fight that I didn’t think I was ever gonna have to fight a fight for the small business is the fight for the right to be open a fight for us as Americans to be able to make a living on this a fight for our employees to come to work that are very excited to come to work because we are all small-town America we are Minnesota strong you guys let me I’ll repeat that a hundred times we are Minnesota strong we are small-town America we are not big city we are prepared for kovat 19 we have been the whole time we have licenses to prove that food and health liquor a lot of us all have those I don’t want to see this happen to you guys ever again I don’t want to see one person deciding whether or not we should all be open it should be a vote between the people if you don’t want to go out and you don’t want to go other bars and restaurants you don’t want to go to a campground you don’t want to go on a host boat that you’d have a better chance on get eat by a timber wolf or a grizzly bear then getting cove at 19 if you don’t want to do any of those things I strongly suggest you stay home and when we understand there are this is a very real thing we take this very serious health is number one health to our to our customers our employees is always always number one especially in the business that we’re all in small businesses you guys I don’t want to see this happen we all feel betrayed whether it’s by law enforcement that told us they will step down or by somebody that you know somebody that has your back we have everybody’s back small businesses we always have whether you’re in competition with somebody maybe you’re in competition with the neighbor down the street you guys still are friends you guys still need to work together we all have we always have be proud of your neighbors with us not Albany we’re gonna try to open the 20th governor waltz comes out with a new safety precaution plan that’s taken him eight weeks to get done we hope that he gets that done if he doesn’t it says he has to have it done so we’re assuming it’s gonna be done in the 20th there’s no promises than us being open on the first so what we’re planning on doing is we want over on the 20th once we get that once we get that paperwork that says the help what we need to do to follow the orders we will get that to our health inspectors and get them approved ASAP and we will try to open Wednesday the 20th here’s the deal I think this little further for you guys though I want to after being so involved on something and talking with so many people and seeing the hurt that’s so real for us we need to go further Shady’s is willing to put our somewhat of our name on the line for this and make it happen we’re willing to take this to Supreme Court we need to fight this in Wisconsin it took them nine days to get to the Supreme Court we’re hoping that we can get there sooner than that or if nine days it’s sooner than another two weeks or another two weeks after that I need all your guys and small business support I need anybody that could help us out with this we’ve never done a GoFundMe page I’ve never donated on them I’ve never had one we don’t want any of this money for ourselves we have no intentions of keeping this money this money will be donated to open other small businesses around Minnesota in the future if there’s any money left over our attorneys that this will cost about $100,000 to get the Supreme Court we don’t have a hundred thousand we can raise the seventy thousand of that money I’m go fund me we’ll fight it we’ll bring it there and we’ll make sure that doesn’t happen again again none of this money will be used for us we have zero intentions of keeping any of it we do not want any of it we want to work for our money just like the rest you guys I’m here for you all Collier I please we’re available all weekend if you guys got any questions or concerns the bar owners and restaurants that I’ve chatted with and career owners that I’ve pushed so hard for I hope you guys understand that we’re all here together again we’re Minnesota strong like and share donate if you want again none of the money to go towards us it’s gonna go to open a small business later on for you like and share thank you everybody stay safe out there