Alderman: Closing CVS In East Garfield Park 'Amounts To Theft'
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Politicians are pushing back against the planned closing of a CVS pharmacy within the next month on the west side of Chicago.
WBBM's Nancy Harty reports.
State Representative Melissa Conyears-Ervin and other elected officials stood in front of a CVS store at Madison and Kedzie Sunday morning to denounce the move. Her husband, Alderman Jason Ervin, said the case was a travesty and that it amounts to theft.
"We have enough challenges and problems in this community, and we don't need to have the fact that our seniors cannot get their basic medicine anywhere in East or West Garfield Park," he said.
Ervin said Chicago gave the drugstore $1 million in tax breaks to open at the East Garfield Park location about five years ago. He added that he's having the city's lawyers look at any reimbursement the company may owe Chicago.
Conyears-Ervin said it's unacceptable that CVS has not informed customers of its plans to close within a month. She also said a family-owned pharmacy that used to be located across the street closed after CVS moved in. That means seniors and other customers will have to travel farther to fill prescriptions.
"Because CVS opened, it pushed out our 'Ma' and 'Pa' pharmacy," she said.
A CVS spokesman told WBBM the 11 closures in Chicago by the end of next month was a "difficult business decision."
Mike DeAngelis, Senior Director of Corporate Communications at CVS, said the company is working to transfer customers' prescriptions and employees to its roughly 80 other locations in Chicago. Four drugstore locations will also send the prescriptions to Walgreens stores that are closer for customers.