{"id":49917,"date":"2020-12-11T16:48:27","date_gmt":"2020-12-11T23:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/after-defying-public-health-order-wild-horse-saloon-owner-says-she-will-close\/"},"modified":"2020-12-11T23:48:27","modified_gmt":"2020-12-11T23:48:27","slug":"after-defying-public-health-order-wild-horse-saloon-owner-says-she-will-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/after-defying-public-health-order-wild-horse-saloon-owner-says-she-will-close\/","title":{"rendered":"After defying public health order, Wild Horse Saloon owner says she will close"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Amber
Amber Gilchrist-Morris, owner of the Wild Horse Saloon, said she will not defy public health orders this weekend, but vows fight on against public health orders.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The owner of the Wild Horse Saloon, who opened last weekend in defiance of public health orders, said she will not open this weekend but vowed to keep fighting the regulations.<\/p>\n

Because of a high number of COVID-19 cases, La Plata County is classified in the Level Red category for public health restrictions.<\/p>\n

Under Level Red, bars are required to close unless they serve food. However, those establishments cannot offer indoor dining and are limited to offering only takeout and delivery services, as well as outdoor dining.<\/p>\n

Wild Horse Saloon owner Amber Gilchrist-Morris opened the downtown Durango bar the nights of Dec. 4 and 5<\/a>, prompting a complaint to the state Department of Revenue\u2019s Liquor and Tobacco Enforcement division.<\/p>\n

Gilchrist-Morris said in a video posted to Facebook on Thursday she will not reopen again this weekend, fearing she could lose her liquor license, as other bars have across the state for defying public health orders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am an easy target because of my liquor license, it\u2019s just the truth,\u201d she said. \u201cI can\u2019t survive without my liquor license. \u2026 I can\u2019t afford to lose that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilchrist-Morris said she would comply with the public health order \u201cfor the time being.\u201d She said a number of businesses in La Plata County intend to fight the regulations in court.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis does not mean we\u2019re giving up,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have realized the only way we can beat these people are at their own game, and that\u2019s in the courts, and we\u2019re going to use a piece of paper to rule them like they ruled us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilchrist-Morris said businesses have started to mobilize to fight back against the orders. She said a website, called LaPlataCountyBusinessAlliance.com<\/a>, was created to help provide businesses with legal advice about how to \u201cfight this war.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also said a rally to support businesses will be held in Buckley Park on Friday, similar to the \u201cBusiness Lives Matter\u201d rally held last week. She said the rally will continue each week for the indefinite future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are using fear to control us and we can\u2019t allow them to do it,\u201d she said. \u201cLocally, we are building and we\u2019re going to bring this draconian (expletive) down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meghan Tanis, spokeswoman for the state\u2019s Department of Revenue, said Friday the investigation involving the Wild Horse Saloon is pending.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot comment at this time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In a similar situation, the town of Lyons Board of Trustees voted this week to revoke the business license and suspend the liquor license of a bar called Lyons Den Restaurant and Tap House that refused to close to indoor service, Fox 31 reported.<\/p>\n

The state Department of Revenue\u2019s Liquor and Tobacco Enforcement division then raided and seized all of the liquor inside Lyons Den, according to Fox 31.<\/p>\n

Wild Horse Saloon is one of a few La Plata County businesses that have openly defied public health orders.<\/p>\n

The other highly publicized case is CJ\u2019s Diner, which stayed open to indoor dining but later closed after a District Court judge ordered local law enforcement to stop the restaurant\u2019s in-person dining<\/a> by \u201cwhatever means necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

having liquor license revoked<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,314,28,29,686],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-49917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-downtown-durango","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-san-juan-basin-health-department"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49917"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=49917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}