Mr. Stien,

The AMA District 17 Board Members are once again reaching out to you and the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.  We thank you for your time to read and respond to our previous letter.  Since our last letter to your committee many things have changed and we are seeing the curve flatten in many areas, especially outside of the Chicagoland area where the majority of our organization resides.  We know talks have started about the way to reopen the states and we feel our organization with its clubs and promoters should be the first groups to be allowed to open and open as soon as possible.  
AMA District 17 is aware that one shoe doesn't fit all types of activities, nor does all areas in our state have the same exposure levels to this crisis.  We are asking your committee to not "group" us with the traditional team and contact sports since we are very different as we are an individual based activity.  Traditional team and contact sports bring people very close together, even have people touching one another while trying to get the ball like in basketball and soccer.  ORV participation keeps people separated, especially off road motorcycling since they are on individual motorcycles and are following each other on a track or trail which meets and exceeds all social distancing requirements.  While traditional team and contact sports seldom have full face head protection while ORV facilities require full face helmets.  Unlike football or hockey helmets that are open gate type helmets ORV full face helmets are similar to wearing a mask in that they keep a person’s air space contained to oneself.  
AMA District 17 has been watching surrounding states and as you may or may not be aware many have been allowing ORV recreational activities.  MO, IN, IA, and now MN in a few short days will be allowing our preferred outdoor activity.  In WI the Governor is opening up the golf courses and even though their shelter in place was extended to May 26th many of the ORV trails are set to open on May 15th.  AMA District 17 is request nothing more than to be included in the process of outdoor activities as surrounding states are and have been doing.  
AMA District 17 is sending this email again because we are very concerned about many of the business within our organization.  While speaking too many of the businesses we have been made aware that many do not qualify for the SBA loans.  Since many don’t qualify and the state has deemed what is and isn’t an essential business many of the businesses within our organization may very well go out of business.  This time of year is the opening for many of these businesses and they rely on that initial spike in income to pay for their property, their taxes, and to bring on seasonal help among other expenditures.  Now that the state has deemed them non-essential many of these businesses will fail completely and put a bigger strain on the already finically strained IL system.  It’s very unfortunate that this will, not may, happen unless these business are allowed to open soon.   
AMA District 17 asks that you and the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity acknowledge our request to open ORV facilities.  We have over 10,000 riders in this state and many small businesses that are a part of this state.  Many of those businesses have provided places for individual riders and families to ride for generations.  Currently we have riders and families heading to surrounding states that are still open to ORV activities.  This is defeating the purpose of the stay at home proclamation to a much bigger degree.  Our ORV areas can adhere to social distancing guidelines from parking to sign up to participation by the riders.   We feel we can be a part of the re-opening of the state and as an organization be a partner in this challenging time.  
             Thank you for your time,                                AMA District 17 Club Council