Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Café Rosetta in Calumet is among seven businesses to receive a fine or license suspension from the state for offering indoor dining service.

CALUMET — The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) filed a motion in Ingham County Circuit Court on Tuesday, requesting the court to force Café Rosetta in Calumet to be shut down for violating the state health department’s closure on indoor dining.

According to court documents, MDARD is requesting the 30th Circuit Court to enter an order “permanently enjoining Defendant and its members, employees and…officers from selling and offering food for sale without a license.” The documents state MDARD says that Café Rosetta has been operating without a food service license since early December.

The Ingham County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office said the case is a request, and not a criminal case. The suit was filed as a CZ case, meaning it is a civil law suit and so does not seek damages, but simply a court order for the shop to stop selling food.

“The department that filed the request is a licensing agency for the state of Michigan, as opposed to a plaintiff-defendant suit,” said the Clerk’s Office.

Tuesday’s MDARD action is the latest action taken by the Whitmer Administration since the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) issued a new emergency order on Nov. 15, enacting a three-week pause targeting indoor social gatherings and other group activities in an effort to curb rapidly rising COVID-19 infection rates. The order requires restaurants to again suspend indoor dining, permitting only take-out, delivery, and outdoor dining.

Café Rosetta was among seven businesses targeted by the state on Nov. 25 for offering indoor dining service in violation of the state’s three-week shutdown, which is now into its sixth week. The café, located on Fifth Street, was ordered to pay fines of $1,000 per day for every day the business continues to operate. Since Nov. 25, the cafe has racked up $36,000 in fines (as of Dec. 31).

State Senator Ed McBroom (R-Waucedah Township) and State Representative Greg Markkanen (R-Hancock) issued a statement on Tuesday, blasting MDARD’s court filing against the Café Rosetta and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in Michigan.

“Today, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development joined Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel, Director Robert Gordon, and their department bureaucrats in their crackdown against hardworking Upper Peninsula residents and property owners,” the statement says. “The state has created a no-win situation for our U.P. businesses. Sadly, today, Café Rosetta is its latest target. Those who refuse to close just to survive are having their duly paid licenses revoked and property rights seized or destroyed by bureaucrats in Lansing.”

The statement went on to say that while the Legislature took action to provide businesses with relief in the recent budget supplemental, “the governor also showed her lack of empathy for businesses across the state and slashed the funding today by line-item veto.”

It also said that the regular, democratic process for laws must be restored, allowing for debates over laws and rules, and for the will of the people to prevail.

“We must also repeal these old laws that allow any administration so much unchecked power, the statement reads. “In this fight against COVID-19, and for the soul of our state and nation, restaurants are not the problem — why else won’t the governor share her science for how Café Rosetta is a problem, but big box stores and casinos are not?”

In the joint statement, the two legislators refuted the Whitmer Administration’s emergency orders are of any value to public health and safety, claiming that inspite of the lockdowns and policies, Michigan continues to be among the highest per capita infection states, all the while having the most regulations and orders of all 50 states.

“While the governor finds the order necessary due to the infection,” the statement blasts, “it seems obvious to many of us that the orders accomplish little for saving from the virus and everything for destroying lives.”