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Thinking ahead: How will economy progress in the months ahead?
It was a very interesting and thoughtful discussion shared among a group of northwest Illinois residents with interests in Jo Daviess and Carroll counties.
Emily Legal, Northwest Illinois Economic Development executive director, assembled this diverse group of people representing health department administrators, business owners, organization managers and governmental officials.
On top of that, the entire meeting, held remotely, showed how Zoom can be successfully used to hold productive meetings.
The discussion, held Wednesday, April 29, gave participants the opportunity to begin thinking as to what opening up the economy might involve and look like in the coming months.
Splinter politics didn’t puncture this discussion. None blamed Trump, Obama, Pritzker or even the Chinese.
Instead, participants focused their attention on what the lay of the landscape might be in June, July and the months afterward and then on how society and businesses could begin reopening and doing so safely for all. One might consider this a “best practices” type of discussion.
The participation of Sandra Schleicher, Jo Daviess County Health Department administrator, and Craig Bentema, administrator for the health departments in Stephenson and Carroll counties, added much-needed substance to the discussion.
They were well prepared and have probably been asked the same questions over and over and over: When will things get back to normal? How long will we need to wear masks? When can retail stores open or restaurants? When will limits on crowds be lifted?
All are central as to how and when businesses reopen.
Schleicher noted that planning is challenging because the landscape of COVID-19 might change “four times by the end of May.”
But that doesn’t negate the need for planning, Bentema contends. “Plan with the information you have now, but plan conservatively,” he adds.
That seems like great advice.
Bentema believes that restrictions won’t be removed at once and life and business won’t return to normal with a click of a switch.
The best case scenario for the number of people who can gather might be 25 people at some point in June, he says.
That limit could be raised to 50-100 people in July. He doesn’t see gatherings of 1,000 people or more until September.
When he talks, the operative words are “might” and “could.” Those are words with wiggle room and aren’t precise.
“When you look at events,” he said, “determine the last day you can make a decision without financial penalty. There are lots of these issues coming up and we don’t know the parameters.”
Regarding masks, Bentema predicted that “they will be around for awhile. If it goes from mandatory to highly recommended...it may be in July.”
He asked, “Will people who believe in wearing masks be willing to spend money in a business that does not have a mask policy?”
Having a mask policy, he continued, shows customers that the business cares about their safety.
The question as to who would monitor mask wearing came up. The answer is probably each business. Local law enforcement nor health department have sufficient staff to do this.
So, how will one go about opening up for business.
Chris Lain is Savanna mayor and is a partner in two businesses Savanna Marketplace and Circa 1888. He’s able to open Savanna Marketplace this Friday, but things will be different.
He noted, “We’ve added online orders and tried to limit interaction. Everything needs to be pre-ordered. We won’t take cash. People will need to know what they want and then we’ll need to meet them.”
Bentema also suggested having hand sanitizer at the register and added, “Having a Plexiglas window (at the register) is a good thing to have. It is something that is wise to do and is not that expensive.”
He also said businesses shouldn’t be afraid of accepting cash.
Deb Mikol from River Bend Gallery in Galena asked about best practices for keeping inventory safe and clean.
Bentema suggested putting liquid hand sanitizer in a spray bottle and mist over products that can handle it.
Mikol thought another option might be to put out just one item instead of many and then get the wanted item from inventory.
Bentema also suggested that it was important to frequently wipe down counter tops and tables. the virus stays viable on cardboard for 24 hours; counter tops, eight hours; and stainless steel, seven hours.
There was also some discussion of marketing once the economy opens up.
Rose Noble, Galena Country Tourism CEO, said her organization is making plans to recover marketing as well as working on a tip sheet to serve as a reference and help businesses be clean.
Catherine Kouzmanoff, owner of Miss Kitty’s Grape Escape, suggested that Galena business could adopt the hashtag #wekeepitcleangalena to promote Galena.
Noble added, “People need to understand that things won’t be open as they used to be. There will need to be consumer and business responsibility.”
by P. Carter Newton,
publisher
cnewton@galgazette.com