Daily Journal staff report

SPRINGFIELD — Hayli Martenez, of Kankakee, got her day before state legislators Tuesday to discuss proposed legislation that would help her and other children younger than the age of 16 have a chance to earn money by running a lemonade stand.

Hayli, 11, gave her views to a public health committee with Sen. Patrick Joyce, D-Essex, next to her. Joyce is sponsoring Senate Bill 3459, which is referred to as Hayli’s Law.

“I am ready to make a change for little people, like little girls and boys, who have lemonade stands,” Hayli said.

The law would amend the Food Handling Regulation Enforcement Act. It would provide, in part, that “notwithstanding any other provision of law, a unit of local government or local public health authority shall not require a license, permit, or fee for the sale of lemonade or other nonalcoholic beverage by an individual under 18 years of age from a stand on private property with permission of the owner of the private property or in a public park.”

This started last summer when Hayli set up a stand to help her raise funds for college.

Business was booming but the stand was shut down by Kankakee County Health Department officials. They were concerned about the bottles that the family was using for the lemonade.

There was no running water or sewer service from the stand to the home in the 1800 block of East Court Street, which violated city of Kankakee code.

“We have a situation where we have food products that are being made and mixed in bottles that are not approved by a licensed facility. Are the bottles being reused? If they are, I don’t know what was in the bottles first,” John Bevis, Kankakee County health administrator, told the Daily Journal in a July 2019 story.

For the stand to continue to operate, the family would need to get a county health department license, Bevis said.

“My lemonade stand is a dream I shared with my grandma before she passed away. She always told me to make lemonade out of lemons, so I did,” Hayli said. “When my lemonade stand was shut down I became very upset. I asked myself, ‘Why me?’ I didn’t do anything wrong.”

The bill passed the Public Health Committee and now goes before the full Senate. If passed by both the Senate and House, it would go to Gov. JB Pritzker. If signed into law, it would go into effect immediately.