DEARBORN, Mich. – The Ford-Wyoming Drive-in in Dearborn now expects to remain closed until June 12 after trying to reopen on Thursday night.
The drive-in says it was served a cease-and-desist order from law enforcement when it was showing movies early Friday morning. Michigan’s stay-at-home order has been extended until June 12, but it appears the drive-in did not know this and thought the stay-at-home order would expire at midnight.
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Here’s the statement on the drive-in’s Facebook page Friday morning:
"During last night’s movies, we were served a cease-and-desist order by law enforcement. Based on the Governor’s previous executive order stating that the stay-at-home orders would expire at 11:59 p.m. May 28, we endeavored to re-open as quickly as possible with showtimes starting at 12:05 a.m. May 29. Given our significant measures of social distancing and facility-wide sanitation, as well as the opening of other drive-ins throughout the state, we believed we could re-open successfully while adhering above and beyond to the federally recommended guidelines. It appears we were wrong.
We sincerely apologize to our drive-In community, all of whom were excited to return to our drive-in. Our entire staff looked forward to seeing you enjoying the movies at the Ford-Wyoming Drive-In. Know that our number one priority is the well-being of our customers and staff. We anticipate that we will be able to re-open around June 12 barring any additional changes in the stay-at-home orders.
We cannot say enough how sorry we are to remain closed, and we hope that we will see you all again when the Governor’s orders permit us to re-open."
The governor’s revised stay-at-home order did not explicitly call for a non essential business such as a drive-in movie theater to reopen. On May 22, Whitmer signed Executive Order 2020-100 to extend Michigan’s “Safer at Home” order until June 12, 2020. The governor’s order is intended to protect Michiganders from the spread of COVID-19 by extending the temporary closure of certain places of public accommodation such as theaters, gyms, and casinos.
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