The concern is tangible. You can feel it as you walk through town. COVID-19 is on everyone’s minds and is already impacting our small businesses. Hotels are experiencing cancellations. Sales are down; restaurants, bars, entertainment facilities and schools are closed.
This is the time of year when local business is crucial, and they still need to pay rent and staff and purchase inventory.
Merchants are being proactive and have stepped up in a number of ways. We are fortunate in our small seaport town to have a unique mix of businesses, but things feel fragile right now.
The Old Whiskey Mill is making a family to-go meal plan, and Alchemy Bistro and Wine Bar is offering a half price bottle of wine with your to-go orders. In an effort to preserve jobs, Sirens has food to go and also growlers and bottles of wine to-go; they are offering curbside pickup from noon to 8 p.m. and offering delivery within city limits from noon-3 p.m. and 5-8 p.m.
If your favorite local small business has a website, shop online. Sign up for their newsletter and follow them on social media. Buy gift cards or gift certificates to use later.
Love the arts? Many arts organizations have had to cancel events already. The Victorian Festival, Port Townsend Film Festival’s “Women & Film” and the Wearable Art Show have all announced the cancellation of these events. Centrum’s previously-scheduled chamber music concert on April 5 with the Callisto Trio has been rescheduled to September 27.
Consider making a donation or buying a gift certificate to those nonprofit organizations.
A number of service organizations have rescheduled fundraisers whose revenue flows back to our community. The Rotary Auction has been reinvented as an online auction for the last two weeks in April. Check their website at porttownsendrotary.org for updates. Rotary contributed more than $44,000 to our community last year. Also of note, The Jefferson County Garage Sale and Flea Market was moved from March 21 to May 9.
Our nonprofit Main Street Program coordinates more than 20 events a year and we are deep in the planning stages. While there is uncertainty on the horizon, we are optimistic that Governor Inslee’s stringent measures will reap huge benefits and flatten this outbreak in its tracks.
Our local Main Street Program is updating information at ptmainstreet.org. New state and federal legislation might make it possible for small businesses to receive assistance for economic loss due to COVID-19. Visit https://www.governor.wa.gov for updates.
The Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce has links to help businesses weather the COVID-19 challenges at Jeffcounty.chamber.org.
Other tools include the Port Townsend Main Street Program’s LENT Microloan Fund for business emergencies at ptmainstreet.org/resources. The next applications are due April 15.
Foremost, we must follow the health department guidelines—a good place to start is jeffersoncountypublichealth.org/1429/COVID-19.
Wash hands, stay home if you are ill, avoid contact with others who are ill, keep informed and be smart about how we interact with our world right now.
Our merchants and staff are friends and neighbors, these are local jobs, this is our community. Our local businesses here in Port Townsend can only thrive and be here for tomorrow if we patronize them—let’s get creative. We need to be there for each other now more than ever, but we will have to save the hugs for later after we get through this—and we will.
Visit the Port Townsend Main Street website at ptmainstreet.org for updates. Sign up for our newsletter and follow us on social media to keep involved in the conversation.
(Mari Mullen is the executive director of the Port Townsend Main Street Program.)
