SHAWANO COUNTY (NBC 26) -- Ann Retzlaff has been the owner of Annie's Campground for 10 years. It is a decade of work she says she takes a lot of pride in. She does not want COVID-19 to limit her business as the summer comes close.
"We had just celebrated our 10 year anniversary," Retzlaff said. "March is when we get ready for the summer. The cabin fever starts to wear off and people are dying to get outside."
She said her regular customers canceled their plans in mid-March as the coronavirus pandemic spread. Her customers stopped coming. Her bills did not.
"Our regulars have a payment due on March 15th, of course everything started closing on Friday the 13th," she said. "It didn't stop my $20,000 mortgage or my $3,000 insurance bill."
Camp sites were deemed essential businesses. However, her bar and restaurant closed. Recently, she decided to open her business back to the public. She claims the Governor's Safer at Home order limits her constitutional rights.
"It is my business," She said. "This is my property, these are my customers. If they don't want to come they don't have to."
She has no intentions on enforcing social distancing. She says her customers have the right to do what they want.
The Shawano County Sheriff will not enforce the executive order either. He wrote a letter to Gov. Evers in April asking the Governor to lift some of the restrictions.
We reached out to the Sheriffs office and have not head back yet. Retzlaff said she is not afraid about COVID-19 spreading.
"Our campsites are very spread out," she said. "Plus we are getting closer to summer and we are far away from most of the spread. I am not worried. We also clean our cabins and campsites very well."
