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Carrot Tree Kitchens Owner Defies National Park Service By Not Leaving Property

Carrot Tree Kitchens

A Yorktown, Virginia, restaurant owner has joined the ranks of hundreds of Americans who are fighting back against the illogical and unreasonable federal government shutdown dictates.

When restaurant owner Glenn Helseth made the decision not to vacate his building when ordered to do so by the National Park Service (NPS), he became a lawbreaker. For more than a decade Helseth has operated the Carrot Tree Kitchens [1] Restaurant in Yorktown inside the Cole Diggs House. Since the National Park Service owns the building, Helseth and his wife were given 48 hours to pack up their things and vacate the property. The couple and their staff are not federal employees, so once the government shutdown is over, they will not be getting any back pay. Just a few weeks of shuttered doors could cause irreparable damage to the restaurant’s employees and its business. Adding insult to injury, the couple also owns a restaurant on Jamestown Island, also federal land, and was ordered to close that one as well.’

“We’re upset on a number of levels, not the least of which is the impending financial doom that Carrot Tree faces,” Glenn Helseth said. “… I intend to serve everybody that wants to dine with me. I don’t intend to close my doors. I am occupying Carrot Tree Yorktown. … I’m serving Brunswick stew, ham biscuits, and carrot cake. If that gets me put in jail, I’m going to jail.”

Concerns voiced by his restaurant staff helped prompt his decision to defy the federal government. Going a single week without a paycheck was forcing many of the workers to worry not only about making rent, but about putting food on their table. Helseth sends the federal government a check each month for the use of the property and he receives no taxpayer funds or services.

Discover The Only Way Back To True Freedom And Liberty In America… [2]

Of course, it’s not the first controversial decision by the NPS or the government during the shutdown. Among the others:

How do you feel about the government’s positions on what is closed and not closed?

Hide Your Gold [5]