By Neil Doyle
BLOOMINGTON – It’s not very often Bloomington Mayor Tari Renner sends a letter to the governor, but he did last week to address the state’s COVID-19 resurgence mitigations.
In the letter to Gov. Pritzker, Renner said Bloomington has done better than many other communities in the state in terms of infection rates and other factors. He said these mitigations have been placed on the city using limited metrics and based on the statistics of some of our neighbors in the region.
THE SCOTT MILLER SHOW: Mayor Renner on restaurants not following the Governors orders https://t.co/nIJ6HnVdta
— WJBC AM 1230 and FM 102.1 (@WJBC) November 11, 2020
The mayor acknowledged that case numbers and positivity rates have increased over the last few weeks. As of Wednesday, the rolling positivity rate in McLean County is 9.2% and in Region 2 14.6%. State health officials for the second consecutive day announced over 12,000 new cases.
“Not that we’re in greater danger, but circumstances across the state have changed over the last two to three weeks, even when I sent the letter,” Renner told WJBC’s Scott Miller. “I’m sure being the governor of Illinois right now no matter who you are or what you’re trying to do is not an easy job.”
Renner said he has not heard back from Gov. Pritzker.
“I’ve now been mayor under three governors, and actually when Pat Quinn was governor he gave me a cellphone and I would just call him and he’d pick up which was amazing,” said Renner.
The mayor wrote twice to Bruce Rauner, but no response.
Neil Doyle can be reached at neil.doyle@cumulus.com
