Local officials and business owners are disappointed that Gov. Tom Wolf didn’t elevate Butler County to the yellow COVID-19 reopening phase Friday, but some were not surprised.

Wolf placed 24 counties including those surrounding Butler County in the yellow phase that allows some businesses to open and partially lifts the stay-at-home rule for residents.

“The word disappointed would be an understatement,” said Leslie Osche, county commissioner chairwoman. “I want the governor to come here and tell these businesses they can’t open. I’m not carrying that message.”

Many business owners have sent emails to commissioners detailing the struggles they’ve endured since Wolf ordered non-life-sustaining businesses closed in mid-March.

Flo Iman, owner of Flo’s Gymnastics and FCA Gems in Sarver, said she emailed a letter to the governor’s Southwest office asking to reopen the business she started in 1976.

“March 12 was the last day in the gym. I have not collected any revenue since then,” Iman said.

She said she received approval for the federal Payroll Protection Program, which covers employee wages, rent, mortgages and utility costs for eight weeks. “If I can’t open in eight weeks, my employees are likely to go on unemployment,” she said.

Butler School Board member and business owner Bill Halle is so upset about Wolf’s COVID-19 policies he announced on Facebook that he is organizing a protest from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday in Diamond Park in Butler.

This is an excerpt from a larger article that will appear in Sunday’s Butler Eagle. Subscribe online or in print to find out how other local businesses responded to the news that Butler would not be reopening on May 8th.