Naperville mayor wants to begin reopening his city on May 1

NAPERVILLE - While many are ready to hunker down until the coronavirus pandemic passes, Naperville's mayor says the city is ready to reopen and he wants the governor to give them the OK.

Mayor Steve Chirico has been on calls with Governor JB Pritzker. The mayor is eyeing some stores to open up May 1. Naperville has lost $18-million in revenue since the pandemic started.

“We take it in stages with the low-risk businesses to open first, then you pause and collect data,” said Mayor Chirico.

But is the governor on board? Pritzker acknowledged that he will amend the current stay-at-home order before it expires April 30, but stopped short of saying what will reopen.

“We will be making some changes to the stay-at-home order as it is. But it is true that it is working. And so to pull it off…to remove it entirely is to simply open everything back up to infection,” the governor said.

There would be daily monitoring to make sure coronavirus is not spreading. Naperville has had 136 cases reported and the mayor says a handful of deaths.

Mayor Chirico believes golf courses, tennis courts and even law firms should open back up.