After five weeks with serious questions as to the legal authority of the Governor”s Executive Orders regarding Covid-19, the Barrington Hills Board of Trustees unanimously passed a Resolution Tuesday night to open the community and to provide guidance to its residents, businesses and churches. 

Further, the Resolution asks the Illinois State General Assembly for clarity as to the legal authority of the Governor’s “Restore Illinois” Phased Reopening Program.

Additionally, the resolution seeks the removal of Barrington Hills from the Northeast Region, which includes the City of Chicago.

Removal from that region would  immediately move Barrington Hills from Phase 2 to Phase 5 for reopening, based on the metrics in its specific area.

The Resolution also asked the Village’s Attorney to research the possibility of entering into lawsuits against the Governor’s Orders, and to look into joining in existing suits that have already been filed.

The Barrington Hills Resolution identified several concerns for residents under the current pandemic restrictions imposed by the Governor’s Executive order.

One of their major concerns was the continuing decline of health care facility operations and their financial condition, beyond the care being provided to just 32 Covid patients at Good Shepherd Hospital.

There has been a flattening of the curve in the area for weeks, and Barrington Area Covid hospitalizations and deaths have been at extremely low levels.

Several trustees were concerned with the lack of preventative care and routine or elective procedures being provided, and the impact that delayed care will have on the overall health condition of thousands in the area in the future.

One trustee said that one of the reasons people live in our area is the high quality of health services which are now being jeopardized.

Although BH has few businesses, it was mentioned that many residents living in the Village are employers whose employees want to get back to work supporting their families and not having to rely government programs.

Many of the trustees shared a concern that the Governor’s metrics for complete reopening included a requirement for a vaccine, a therapeutic remedy, and/or zero Covid cases. 

This metric is unreasonable as effective vaccines may never be found,  the therapies may never be available and eliminating Covid completely, like all viruses, may take years, if ever.

The Board mentioned that the initial reasons for the lockdown made sense, based on the morbidity projections and that the objectives of the stay-at-home orders were to reduce hospitalizations so as not to overwhelm healthcare facilities and reduce preventable deaths. 

Unfortunately, the initial projections were extremely inaccurate on morbidity, and on the predicted strain on our healthcare system never occurred.