These talks come as Gov. Mike DeWine said the state may start cautiously reopening parts of its economy, impacted by the pandemic, starting on May 1.
“It’s good news. We can start to see some of those businesses come back. Not everything can happen at once,” said Sara Neer, the executive director of the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce.
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Those changes are expected to come with mandates that could require the use of masks, hand sanitizer and social distancing rules. The precautions are designed to protect workers and the public from a resurgence in infections related to the coronavirus.
DeWine said the plan will be implemented in stages and several variables will influence how the state re-opens, such as if there is an increase in the availability of personal protective equipment, capacity for coronavirus testing and the level of cases and hospital admissions.
On Thursday, he said a detailed plan is currently being developed.
In Champaign County, officials said it means monitoring the situation and trying to be of aid as some closed businesses began to re-open their doors. Neer said that there is currently an effort to form types of economic task forces in the county with the aims of providing assistance.
One of which would be a recovery team, that would be a partnership of several agencies including the chamber and the Champaign Economic Partnership.
Those efforts could include redirecting resources to impacted businesses and providing information on best practices when businesses began transitioning back to normal operations.
Neer noted that she has heard from several business owners that appropriate personal protective equipment for employees is becoming hard to come by and in some cases it can take weeks for those orders to be delivered by private vendors.
There is currently an effort to seek out businesses as well as individuals in the area who are making items such as face masks and other associated equipment. Donations can be directed to the county’s Emergency Management Agency to purchase more of that equipment, said Marcia Bailey, with the Champaign Economic Partnership.
What direct assistance can be provided to businesses on the local level in the coming weeks is still being figured out as more details are being released regarding the easing of the statewide stay-at-home order, said Bailey.
A stay-at-home order was implemented by the Governor’s office in March with the hopes of curbing the spread of the coronavirus in the state. It called for the closing of nonessential businesses, while others that remained open were asked to tweak their operations following state guidelines.
That included implementing social distancing policies at businesses. Restaurants transitioned to offering strictly carryout, delivery or curbside services. Companies that offer both nonessential and essential services were asked to focus on the latter.
Bailey said the impact of that order has varied depending on the business and industry. Though a number of businesses in the county are deemed essential, some have had to shutter their doors or lay off employees.
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Others have actually seen a higher demand for their products including grocery stores as well as some manufacturers, especially those in food production or that make medical supplies, she added.
Although there has been an uptick in lay offs in the county, several companies are still looking for workers amid the pandemic. Those postings can be found on champaignworks.com/jobs.
The pandemic has had a large impact on the supply chains for certain industries, especially the automotive industry. Decisions made by companies such as Honda, one of the biggest automakers in Ohio, to suspend production in late March has had an effect on some companies in Champaign County.
Manufacturer KTH Parts Industries in St. Paris has had to curtail production as a result. That decision has lead to 654 full-time workers temporarily laid off and 125 contingent workers laid off.
Chris Millice, senior vice president of KTH, said that his company has a similar production schedule to Honda’s. He said on Wednesday that KTH expects to start up mass production on May 4.
“The pandemic impact and automotive market is changing daily so we are putting ourselves in a position to be ready to come back on line as soon as our customer needs/requirements return,” Millice said in an email to the News-Sun.
In addition, Bailey said that her organization conducted a business impact survey once the stay-at-home order went into affect. She said the goal is to know what those employers needs are so they could be addressed as the county begins to transition out of the order and businesses begin reopening.
Bailey said the results of that survey, which tracked responses until the end of March, will help guide decisions made by local organizations as they seek to direct resources and other forms of assistance.
The survey, which received approximately 70 responses, asked employers to list the industry that they were in as well as select a category that best represented the total number of employees on their payroll. It also asked businesses to mark if they were considered essential based on state guidelines as well as gauge the impact that the pandemic was having on their business.
The responses were mixed, with some saying that they had experienced a slight impact, while others reported a larger one, especially ones that were deemed unessential.
For companies that remained open, they reported making changes to their daily operations, and in some cases that meant tweaking shifts as well as implementing additional preventative measures at their facilities. Some also reported workers using sick leave or some who may be at greater risk in regards to the coronavirus using PTO.
However, Neer said that the largest economic impact has been on smaller retailers in the county as well as other small businesses and restaurants.
Some restaurants have gradually closed their doors in the weeks following the stay-at-home order. Other businesses have turned to online orders or limited curbside delivery options.
Patrick Thackery, who is the owner of Cafe Paradiso in downtown Urbana, said the business remained open in the week following a statewide decision that forbid restaurants from having dine-in customers. He said they had transitioned to carry out, but ultimately decided to temporarily close the business.
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Thackery said Cafe Paradiso saw a large uptick in carryout orders and it overwhelmed his staff and there were concerns regrading whether they could maintain that change.
The coronavirus pandemic has caused an uptick in residents seeking unemployment benefits as there has been a number of temporary layoffs. That increase began in the middle of March, which saw a record jump in unemployment claims being filed across the state.
As of April 11, there was a total of 855,197 initial jobless claims filed in Ohio over the past four weeks.
Between the weeks ending on March 14 and March 21, Champaign County saw an increase of 1,657% in jobless claims with that number going from 23 to 404 in that period. That trend continued into April as the county saw an additional 835 claims for the week ending on March 28 and 950 for the week ending on April 4.
Some businesses have applied for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program that is designed to help small businesses retain their workforce. Funding for that program ran out this week. There was an uptick in applications in Champaign County and some businesses said they expect to receive that money soon.
The loan is designed to be forgiven for small businesses that are able to retain their workforce by the end of the loan period. Small businesses that applied and had their applications approved can receive a maximum loan of two and a half times more than their average monthly payroll reported in 2019.
As the state works out a plan to reopen portions of the economy, several businesses, especially restaurants, that have closed due to the pandemic have indicated that they intend to reopen their doors soon, Bailey said.
Unemployment claims filed in Champaign County:
855: Number of initial jobless claims for the week ending on April 11
950: Number of initial jobless claims for the week ending on April 4
835: Number of initial jobless claims for the week ending on March 28
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