Please take a moment to complete this Downtown Spokane Safe Start Guideline Survey
Friday, October 30, 2020
Every day your local business associations are working together on your behalf: sharing up-to-date information and resources; giving out over $15 million in grant and marketing dollars, executing promotional campaigns for the greater Spokane area, and distributing PPE supplies to our small business and non-profit community.
But there is still more to do.
In order to support two of the hardest-hit sectors - retail and hospitality - we are asking all employers for assistance in three areas: 1) consider a plan to and/or return to the office, 2) encourage positive employee behaviors at home as well as the office, and 3) complete the three-question survey.
First and foremost, we ask that employers consider a safe return to the office where possible. Much of the success of the retail and hospitality sectors depends on regular patronage from office workers. Many businesses are on the brink of closure without customers, and several local favorites have already made the difficult decision to close permanently.
Recently, our consortium hosted a meeting with Dr. Bob Lutz from the Spokane Regional Health District (SRHD) to explore ways in which industry experts can create a constructive dialogue with state-level decision-makers in order to innovate and progress forward safely while keeping the health of employees and customers in mind.
It was determined continuing the collaborative Spread Kindness consumer confidence campaign is extremely important to help reduce outbreaks by positively encouraging people to adhere to the protective measures in the workplace and particularly at home and among our young adults, both places where SRHD is seeing the biggest uptick in new cases.
We ask for your help in encouraging your employees to continue practicing healthy behaviors outside of your workplace. Together we can move COVID case numbers in Spokane County in the right direction, which will progress our community towards a gradual return to more normal business.
In meeting with Dr. Lutz, we learned that he is open to the help of the business community to identify "Safe Start" guidance constraints that don't make sense, and/or are inconsistent across industries and governing/regulatory agencies. With your help, we can prioritize what amendments need to be made to the guidelines in order to both protect our community and allow local businesses to emerge from the current stalemate. Our community has the opportunity of working with the SRHD to advocate to the Governor, L&I, and the State Department of Health for relief.
To focus our advocacy on the most challenging guidance/restrictions, please respond to the short survey linked below at your earliest convenience.*
