PARMA, Ohio — Another lawsuit filed in Lake County claims Ohio’s reopening plan is unconstitutional.
Doctor Amy Acton, Attorney General David Yost and the Ohio Department of Health are all named in the suit filed by more than a dozen arcade and entertainment businesses.
The lawsuit was filed last week in the same court that issued an injunction allowing gyms to reopen after a similar lawsuit was filed.
Attorney Orville Reed is representing many of the business included in the suit. He says the ban is hypocritical and unconstitutional since Ohio lottery kiosks remain open.
“This is an arbitrary act and it’s it is designed literally to put these places out of business,” he said. “All of these people their livelihoods are put at risk by virtue of this decision and I think that it’s absolutely unfair that it’s being handled so high-handedly and in violation of the Constitution of the state.”
Elena Abramovich, owner of Make Believe Family Fun Center in Parma, is hoping the plea for help isn’t ignored. She says it’s hard not to feel left out watching Governor Mike DeWine announce plans to open other businesses.
“It’s very disappointing. It feels like nobody cares or listens and I think we’re a big part of our community,” Abramovich said.
Abramovich says the center has been closed since March 15 because of the state’s order to close restaurants.
“It’s like a domino effect. It not only affected us it affected all of our employees, their families their income. It affected our vendors.”
DeWine has said they are carefully considering the plan to reopening businesses, while focusing on safety. Still, Abramovich says her team is ready to comply with any required guidelines. Her team planning to possibly open on June first.
“For the last week and this week we’ve been basically cleaning, re-sanitizing reorganizing trying to come up with systems and process in place using other businesses to make sure we’re ready when governor says,” she said. “I just want to get back to work. I know my staff wants to get back to work. We miss our customers. We want to open and we want to try to get back to whatever new normal is.”
