Felder, Eichenstein, and Yeger Propose Legislation to Waive Small Businesses’ Summonses During COVID

By Yehudit Garmaise

    At the beginning of the last century, ships at sea that were in distress created the Morse Code signal of S.O.S., or “Save our Souls” to signal they were in crisis or in need of help. Now, Boro Park’s elected officials are similarly doing everything they can to help the neighborhood’s small business owners to survive, by proposing legislation, called the “Save our Stores Act,” that asks the New York state legislature to waive the payment of any fines and penalties that were incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.

   Today, before announcing the new legislation proposed by State Senator Simcha Felder, Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein, and City Councilman Kalman Yeger, State Sen. Felder said the group “will not be complicit in the pillaging of New York’s hardworking business owners,” whom “were brought to the brink of extinction” by months of lockdowns.

   “These exorbitant fines will be the last nail in the coffin [to kill these businesses,]” State Senator Felder said. “[The small business owners] don’t deserve punishment.”

  After saying the red zone businesses cannot become “collateral damage in the fight against COVID,” Felder said that he feels that “We have a responsibility to do everything in our power to save New York’s small business owners from any additional burdens…and forgive these senseless COVID-related fines immediately.

   The elected officials said in their proposal “while big chain stores were allowed to thrive,” New York agencies continued to “harass and unjustly issue summonses and fines.”

  “The only way to address these summonses is through legislation that will zero out the penalties,” explained Councilman Yeger.