{"id":49997,"date":"2020-12-07T11:49:35","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T18:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/after-defying-public-health-order-cjs-diner-decides-to-stop-indoor-dining\/"},"modified":"2020-12-07T18:49:35","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T18:49:35","slug":"after-defying-public-health-order-cjs-diner-decides-to-stop-indoor-dining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/after-defying-public-health-order-cjs-diner-decides-to-stop-indoor-dining\/","title":{"rendered":"After defying public health order, CJ\u2019s Diner decides to stop indoor dining"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"CJ\u2019s
CJ\u2019s Diner owner Jerry Martinez said he decided to stop offering indoor dining after a District Court judge ordered law enforcement to enforce pandemic-related public health orders.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The owner of CJ\u2019s Diner said he has decided to stop offering indoor dining after defying public health orders for more than two weeks, resulting in legal action.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, more than a dozen customers stood outside CJ\u2019s Diner at 810 E. College Drive, denying entrance to anyone other than customers, including law enforcement who showed up at the scene.<\/p>\n

But Sunday, owner Jerry Martinez said he decided to stop offering indoor dining.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that the health department\u2019s regulations are not right or fair,\u201d he said Sunday. \u201cBut yesterday (Saturday) when I was served the papers by the (La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s Office), and it had a judge\u2019s signature on it, at this point, we\u2019re going to respect that.\u201d<\/p>\n

CJ\u2019s Diner will still offer takeout and delivery, Martinez said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a difficult time with all this stuff,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, I just want to come to work. And so does everyone else in this community that is trying to support their family.\u201d<\/p>\n

When contacted Monday morning, Martinez said business was slow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no one here, just like every other restaurant,\u201d he said. \u201cNo one comes.\u201d<\/p>\n

La Plata County moved into the Level Red public health order Nov. 20 as the result of a dramatic rise in COVID-19 cases. The Level Red designation limits restaurants to offering only takeout and delivery services, as well as outdoor dining.<\/p>\n

But Martinez stayed open to indoor dining, saying his restaurant is not able to financially survive another shutdown to in-person dining.<\/p>\n

On Dec. 1, Martinez was issued a cease-and-desist order, which he ignored. He then continued to keep CJ\u2019s Diner open to indoor dining after a District Court judge on Friday ordered law enforcement to close its doors to in-person dining<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It appears CJ\u2019s Diner\u2019s legal troubles are not over.<\/p>\n

SJBPH filed a preliminary injunction (a motion in the early stages of a lawsuit to stop an act in dispute) on Monday against CJ\u2019s Diner, with a court hearing planned for 9 a.m. Wednesday.<\/p>\n

SJBPH attorney Michael Goldman did not return a call seeking comment.<\/p>\n

Tensions over public health orders among restaurant owners have been rising in recent days after being closed to indoor dining.<\/p>\n

Restaurants have been among the hardest-hit businesses since the pandemic started in March, subject to several shutdowns to indoor dining and limited capacity.<\/p>\n

Health officials, however, say eating inside comes with a huge risk of spreading infections, as customers take off their masks to eat and drink and are typically in close contact with people from other households.<\/p>\n

Outbreaks of COVID-19 cases have been confirmed or under investigation at more than 24 restaurants, SJBPH previously said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear when La Plata County may move back into the less restrictive Level Orange, which allows limited indoor dining, or if health officials are working on a variance process that would allow some restaurants to open.<\/p>\n

Jollon said La Plata County may meet criteria for Level Orange\u2019s test positivity rate, but not for case incident rate.<\/p>\n

When La Plata County\u2019s cases stay below 350 per 100,000 residents for 14 days, adjusted for population size, the state would automatically move the county back into Level Orange.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not believe this has happened yet in any counties in Level Red,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As of Monday, La Plata County had 1,037 cases per 100,000 people in a 14-day period, adjusted for population size. The county has been between 950 to 1,100 new cases per 100,000 residents since Nov. 21, SJBPH said.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the city of Durango announced it was going to raise its effort to enforce pandemic-related public health orders.<\/p>\n

Durango Police Chief Bob Brammer said at least one business has been identified as staying open despite the public health order, as well as a few other possible ones. He declined to name the businesses, citing an open investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of active investigations going on right now,\u201d Brammer said.<\/p>\n

Brammer said local and state agencies are working on an enforcement strategy.<\/p>\n

The Wild Horse Saloon appeared to be open<\/a> for business Friday night with music playing, patrons inside and some people outside smoking, according to an eyewitness. Amber Gilchrist-Morris, owner of the saloon, did not return a phone call seeking comment.<\/p>\n

Martinez, for his part, has maintained he was trying to stand up for not just his diner, but also other restaurants in town financially suffering.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to sow division,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want our community to be OK. So that\u2019s what it\u2019s about. It\u2019s not about CJ\u2019s. It\u2019s about our community because we\u2019re all affected.\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Herald Staff Writer Patrick Armijo contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

restaurant still offering takeout, delivery<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,507,1065,28,1901,4259,668,450,686],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-49997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-durango-city-officials","tag-durango-police-department","tag-headlines","tag-la-plata-county-sheriff","tag-newsletter-sign-up","tag-public-health","tag-restaurant-and-catering","tag-san-juan-basin-health-department"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49997","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=49997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49997"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=49997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}