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Date: 5/7/2020
CHESTER – Michele Kenney, economic development coordinator for the Hilltown Community Development Corporation (HCDC), recently surveyed the small businesses in the hilltowns, to find out what they need going forward, after what has been a devastating economic impact on many of them due to the closures.
Kenney summarized their responses in a memo to Gov. Charlie Baker that HCDC Executive Director Dave Christopolis is bringing to a meeting in Boston. The memo urges the governor to allow small businesses in rural communities that have had fewer positive cases of the novel coronavirus to reopen first.
“Small mom and pop businesses in rural communities need the ability to reopen. Businesses that can make an appointment with one client at a time should be able to serve those clients in the first wave of reopening. This is especially true in rural areas where social distancing protocols have been followed very well, with resulting low instances of positive Covid cases,” Kenney wrote.
Kenney said in order to reopen, businesses will need guidance on safety and more personal protective equipment, which has been challenging for hilltowners to obtain, forcing many towns to scour the internet for options. The Board of Health in Chester recently received a donation of a pallet of N95 masks from the Home Depot Pro Institutional in Georgia, which they shared with first responders in 20 surrounding hilltowns.
In the memo to the governor, Kenney said that many rural small businesses that applied for emergency Covid funding or the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) never received any response to their applications. “Perhaps larger businesses with more employees received priority, as that certainly would be a more attractive loan then a sole proprietor without any employees,” she said.
Kenney also said that many of the businesses that did have employees had no way to keep their non-working employees on the payroll, especially given that they never heard back about the PPP program. “The common response from business owners was, ‘What am I supposed to pay them with?’,” she said.
Kenney said in her capacity with HCDC, she has been receiving a lot of calls from small businesses over the past month, a half dozen a day, asking for help or clarification on the resources that are available.
“For a lot of business in the hilltowns, the PPP program is not the best fit, especially for sole proprietors or Mom and Pop shops,” she said.
Kenney said a better option for them may be the new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, which became available April 30, and is specifically for small business owners and sole proprietorships. She said sole proprietors can do “okay” by filing for the weekly assistance, which is also eligible for the additional $600 federal unemployment weekly stimulus through July 25.
Kenney, who helped one business through the process, said applying is not hard, and the application is based on lost business income. Small business owners can fill it out online. “It’s a really good program, and I’m really happy that they were able to get this together and online,” she said. The link for the PUA program is https://www.mass.gov/how-to/apply-for-pandemic-unemployment-assistance
A case should be made for allowing rural Hilltown businesses to reopen prior to those in larger urban areas, according to Kenney. While it is well documented that urban areas have been hit the hardest by this pandemic, where people live in close quarters and travel utilizing public transportation; social distancing seems to come a bit easier to those in rural America, she said in her memo to the governor.
“We have no public transportation, and generally do not live in apartment buildings, and must rely on our own vehicle for transportation. Many of us in the rural Hilltown areas are solely relying on curbside pickup at our local small mom and pop grocery stores.
Often these stores might be the only one serving one or more communities, making pre-ordering and curbside pickup essential for the safety of all involved. It is working, as rural Hilltowns have seen very few Covid cases, with some communities reporting zero cases. It is important to not paint the state with the same brush,” Kenney said.
“We in the Hilltowns have much more ability to isolate, even as we go back to work serving our fellow Hilltown residents. I have heard the desperation of the small handyman whose business dried up as fear took over the communities. I would respectfully like to suggest allowing home repair contractors to go back to work, as well as businesses that have the ability to make appointments and serve their clients on a one to one basis in the Hilltowns,” she added.
Kenney said that no amount of economic stimulus can bring back needed businesses and service providers to the hilltown region once they’re gone.
“Every business is essential to support residents of these small rural communities. Business owners are willing to practice protective protocols when dealing with clients as everyone needs to feel safe, but everyone also needs to get back to work,” Kenney said.