 Welcome to Longmont Voices and Vision, a project of Longmont public media. In the midst of the darkest period in our lives, when we're bombarded 24 hours a day with news of the coronavirus and the human and economic carnage it's causing in our society, we're challenged to cope with our fears and anxieties, we're remaining hopeful about what lies on the other side of this crisis. This project presents an opportunity for Longmont residents to share with others how they're adjusting to new realities of social distancing and the kind of future they hope to experience on the other side of the crisis. I'm Tim Waters, host of these conversations in a Longmont public media volunteer. In this series I'll be asking Longmont residents, many of them your friends and neighbors, three questions. What are you doing to get through this crisis? Even though we cannot be together right now, how are we staying connected to friends and families? And what's the future you are hoping to see and experience on the other side of this crisis? I hope you'll stay with this series and enjoy listening to your friends and neighbors and learn from them how they're getting through and what they're looking forward to in a new reality on the other side. Jessica Erickson, thank you for lending your voice and your vision to this project. To get started, let's learn a little bit about you. Tell us about Jessica Erickson. Sure, and first I'll say thank you for including me. I'm excited to be a part of this project and to see what others have to say as well. I am president and CEO of Longmont Economic Development Partnership. We're a public private non-profit economic development organization, sort of primary agent for economic development for the city, which under normal circumstances includes attracting new business investment to our community and helping our existing industry base stay here and grow here and thrive here in the city of Longmont. We've shifted gears a little bit, which I'm sure will talk about a little bit more in other answers, but to address some of the needs of our businesses relative to the COVID-19 crisis that we're in the midst of today. I have been doing economic development in this area for going on 20 years, and I have to say have never experienced anything like this that we've been through some down times before and so some comparable experiences that can hopefully bring to the table. Well, I would venture to guess that no one has experienced anything like we're experiencing now in anyone's lifetime at any point in history. So, given the realities of the physical distance we're maintaining from one another and in all the constraints on how we spend our days, how are you getting yourself and your family through this? Okay, so we actually had the amazing fortune of having a baby on March 12th. Congratulations. Grace, thank you so much. And so there are worse ways to spend a pandemic if you have to be in the midst of a pandemic than spending your time snuggling with and smelling a newborn baby. And so that's been a pretty big distraction I think for us at home from everything that goes on or that's been going on outside of our home. My fiance is an essential worker working in the construction industry, so he's been the one going out and about into the universe and I've been staying at home with the little one for the most part and that's worked well for us. We have a 14 year old as well, who we've been trying to support through the new world online schooling and so that's taken up some of our time. And then I have just in the last week really started to re-engage with the work that we do here at Long Island Economic Development Partnership. It became more and more difficult over time to not be a part of the solution or be a part of being a resource to our business community and I have to say it's a great deal of comfort and the ability to contribute to meaningful work both outside of this crisis as well as inside of this crisis to support recovery for our community. And so that's knowing that I have that hopefully come back to you and to at least engage in on some level today provides me with comfort that I'm doing something to contribute to the ultimate solution and recovery from this. So in a moment in history worth social distancing right physical isolation and separation is the kind of the norm or the expectation. What are you doing to stay connected to family and friends as we go through this. So zoom, I've been using and not to promote zoom over anything else but zoom a lot and doing, you know, I have a number of friends in Denver that I haven't been able to see. And so doing some online happy hours and just some creative things like that. I have texted and talked to by phone my mother and my sisters more than I think I ever had before. Because we're all stuck at home with nothing better to do so that's been really good to, I think I'm more connected to them throughout all of this and sending baby pictures to to them as well pretty constantly. And then social media has spent more time than I typically would on in particular Facebook which, you know, has its good points and it's bad points, but it's helped me to stay with this community, because it's been oddly a lot easier to stay connected to my remote family and friends than I feel like I'm staying connected and engaged within this community. So social media platforms have helped with that. Yeah. So, it's safe to assume, and from at least my perspective that on the other side of this pandemic, whatever was normal, right, whatever our routines were and what we thought of as normal, likely to be different on the other side of this whatever the new normal is. Yeah, we get a chance to help kind of create. So the third question is for you. What's the preferred future what would you like to experience see feel right in the new normal. Yeah, and I think there's a lot about the existing normal that wasn't working right I mean a lot of the work that we've been doing is to try and, and especially some of the stuff that we've been doing together has been to try and address. Some of the things that weren't working with the existing normal and so certainly identifying those things and hopefully addressing them in a different way. I think as with any crisis but more so now than I've ever seen before. We're seeing the both the best of people and the worst of people. And so hopefully the best of people, you know, wins out and the worst of people dies out and we come together collectively to recognize that, you know, what we've experienced over the last month and what will what we've experienced over the last several months has given us pause to recognize some of those things working in the existing normal and an environment where we can start to get those things working again whether it be affordable homelessness student loan debt, a variety of things that just weren't working before and we've now had the opportunity to take a pause and and consider how we make them work in the new normal as I mentioned you baby which has become kind of the singular and singular motivation through which I look at some of these things and wanting to create an opportunity an environmental community here a global community where she has the same opportunities for prosperity that I feel like I have had all of my life in the direction we were those things was not going to guarantee her those and so outside of anything that happens with you know the public health crisis that we're facing. I mean, out of that, giving her opportunity to as we discussed have the best possible possible life and hopefully conversations will be created coming out of this that allow for that encourage that that give us all the opportunity to collect. I think it seems to reframe ones. Absolutely. In a fundamental ways. Yeah, Jessica thank you so much for lending your voice and vision to this and thanks for your great work in the community. Take care of you again for family stay safe and healthy. Appreciate that you too. Welcome to Longmont Voices and Vision and thank you for your contributions to this project. Each of these interviews we've started by learning a little bit about who's being interviewed so tell us about you. What you do in Longmont. You're you're in this conversation as a member of leader in our business community so talk about who you are and what you do and then we'll get into these questions. My background brought me to Longmont in high tech and back in the around 1990 the high tech business that I was in kind of had a, oh I'd call it a fairly severe hiccup and I decided that I had been in the ups and downs of high tech and other businesses working with and in other corporations long enough and I was going to go to work for myself. And so bought a hardware store then I bought another hardware store and then we opened the hardware store and then we bought another one. Eventually it all turned out to be our business on north main 17th and main each hardware Longmont, which has been around now under our ownership for 30 years and been around since that shopping center existed in the late 60s. So that's my business. Our daughter owns that business now though my wife and I are still involved fairly deeply in it just helping them go well. I've been involved in the community for as long as I can remember. My parents always stress to us that we gave back, you have to give back. And I've been involved in this year of commerce I sit on the Y board, been chair of the hospital board, I've been terrain for 30 years and so I've been in many things now. I'm winding down a little bit in my partial retirement but still sit on the Longmont economic development partnership board and bank board here in town so I've been involved in in love. I've been in Longmont lots of people in Longmont and that's kind of a very short short bio of me there's a lot more in there but a little boring with it now. Well, nothing's boring about that story and anybody who knows ace hardware on 17th and main, there's not only what a great retail resource that is but what a great corporate citizen ace hardware is. Thanks for all those contributions. I know one of my one of our favorite stops on a regular basis for my wife and I. So you know I'm going to ask three questions. The first of these three questions is in this time of at least unprecedented in any of our lifetimes. I think the kind of social physical distancing or separation and social distancing we're experiencing. What are you doing to get through this period of time? Well, our main business, the ace hardware store is deemed an essential business so that business is open and running and because we've had a lot of people choose not to come into work because they have risk factors and age and so forth. I've kind of been called in to do a few more things maybe than I normally would. So I get out of the house maybe more than somebody who was totally socially distance. So that my life has changed a little bit and that way maybe a little more active in the business that I would might normally have been of course always trying to wear a mask. I'm also in a healthy but in age related risk group as you can as you can probably. You and I both. So we're careful on the show so social distancing and wearing masks and so forth. Flip side of that our downtown business the kitchen store at 464 main we close that early because everything downtown closed bars restaurants. Other retailers downtown. The traffic just dwindled down to nothing in a matter of about four or five days and it just didn't make sense for our daughter who owns the business to keep that open and it's a sad situation. We're worried about whether or not and how that will reopen along with all the businesses on Main Street. It seems like the core of our town has been affected more than almost any other part of of the city. I mean a lot of the city has been affected but to drive down Main Street you could don't want to be flipped but you could fire a cannon down Main Street lately and not hit anybody. And that's a sad sad situation and never thought I'd see this never been in a situation. Like you said I've never been in a situation where I would have even imagined that the entire, you know, economy can shut down and particularly all of our retailers restaurants breweries distilleries. And a lot of our manufacturing has been shut down. It's just it's just crazy. So, but personally, it hasn't because I'm semi retired it hasn't affected my life a lot. I've worked a few more crossword puzzles and done a few more things at home, instead of going out for coffee and more of those sorts of things but Karen and I are doing fine and not haven't gotten to stir crazy yet. So in this time of stay at home orders and with the central businesses and you've explained obviously that you're not stuck at home 24 seven. But we are in a time where we're disconnected from family and friends in ways that we haven't been in the past. How are you staying connected with with those people family and friends probably spend more time on Facebook than normal and and I have family in South Dakota I have family in New Mexico I have a lot of family here in long bond, but my brother and I haven't gone for a cup of coffee in a couple of weeks. That's pretty strange. But everybody kind of keeps track of each other, you know, via Facebook or phone calls and, but social media is about the best way I have found to do it or a phone call occasionally but social media is more immediate in it works well and it's kind of personal, but it's not personal in the way that we really, we already like, at least not that I like. So, we're all learning how to use zoom. More conferences, you know, our bank uses go to meeting and so I just before this time I was on a conference call with the bank on go to meeting so there's not much difference in the tool. Yeah. And the, the last question there's a presumption that underlies it that whatever normal looks like on the far side of this pandemic, you know, once we're out from underneath the state home order and we start to re engage with one another whatever the new normal is, it's fair to assume I think that life is going to be different, at least for a while. So the question is for you. What would you like to see in the new normal but your preferred future and what kind of a future would you like to help create as one of our business leaders. Well, I think this whole situation has reminded all of us just how precious our local economy is not to the people who are in business as much as it is to the people who are in the community and if we don't figure out a way down the road as we go through this to support these local people. It's going to be a semi ghost town around here. I'm a little biased because of the local nature of our business against the Amazons of the world though. I'm an Amazon customer, but we can't get to the point where we're using that to the exclusion of anything that we can do locally. And without business, you won't have the people like East Hardware or any of the other retailers and service businesses in town that support things like the Our Center or Safe Shelter or any of the YMCA, the wonderful nonprofits that we have, your big businesses and your businesses not related to town geographically just aren't doing that. They don't do that. They won't do that. So I would love to see going forward a way that our business community could do a better job of trying to focus everyone on the local business. Now, I'm not saying that we don't need to continue with our efforts to bring primary employers to town. We have to do that. I mean, that's where the money comes from. If you don't have primary employers, you don't have money coming into town. But to figure out how to get those people to understand that being in this town gives them a certain responsibility to support the town. I guess that's what I, that's going to become, it's always been important, but it's going to become far, far more important as we go forward. Just walk up and down either side of Main Street and, and you can see that you can say, well, is that guy going to survive or is that guy going to survive? We've got to do whatever we have to do to make them survive. Federal government's done a little bit, but for most of these people, it hasn't done a fraction of what it's going to take to keep them healthy. And that's what I'd really like to see. Some of these people are my friends or my acquaintances. I would hate to see them go away. It's just part and parcel of the real value of our community, I think. So that's what I would like is bigger emphasis on local. Dan, that sounds to me like a call to action. And we need to listen thoughtfully and carefully and respond appropriately. So thanks for that. Thanks for your contribution to this project. Keep yourself and your family safe. And it'll be, it'll be fun to re-engage when we're out from underneath the stay at home order when we all could be in the same room again. We'll go ahead and have a cup of coffee. All right. Thanks, sir. Very good. Thank you. Eric Wallace, thank you for your willingness to participate in the Longmont Voices and Vision Project. Each of these interviews get started with learning something about who's being interviewed. So tell us about you. Well, my name is Eric Wallace. I'm the co-founder and president of Left Hand Brewing Company here in Longmont. We started in 1993. And this was my next jump after a career, not a, I didn't get to retirement, but a career in the Air Force. So I was in the Air Force for 12 and a half years, mostly serving in Europe and Southwest Asia. And before that I was in Air Force Pratt. So I've grown up all over the world and Longmont is my declared hometown since I moved 19 times until I ended up here. All right. Well, you know, these interviews really are made up of three questions or responses to three questions. The first of those questions is in the midst of an unprecedented moment in time when we are physical distance and in social, physical isolation and social distance, create kind of unique challenges for us. How are you getting through this period of time with this crisis? Well, as a brewer, obviously this, we're amongst the majority of companies that are being significantly impacted. Since in most of our markets, we're a nationally distributed brand, Left Hand is in 46 states. So most of our restaurant and bar customers are completely or almost completely closed down. So a third of our business there is gone right now. Our tasting room is limited to just take out, we're doing curbside pickup and delivery. So we're doing a fraction of our normal business there. We're also a manufacturer and we are an essential business. We provide beer into the, into the food supply. My business card for 26 years I said beer is food on it, it still does. And we're making food out of grain and hops and other ingredients. So we're, we're basically running at a limited capacity, but we're running, we are running, we're running two shifts in production as needed. Since sales are way down, we're trying to get our inventory back into balance. I've got 17 of 23 sales people furloughed currently, or 15, 15 of them furloughed currently because they can't work with stores they can't work with bars they can't work with restaurants they can't work with distributed So they're on the sidelines right now, we've got a couple of other people that are full time furloughed and then a whole slew of brewery people are working on partial hours. Because we're limiting hours and a number of different ways and we're limiting production, and then everybody in the company who's pulling any hours is working at a 25% a reduction right. So the majority of my people are eligible for some kind of unemployment benefit, partial or full. Plus the supplemental plus the majority of them will also be getting this $1,200 supplemental check from the government, either this week or at the end of the year or whenever in between it. Wow. A few challenges. So we're probably running where our goal is to run it half payroll, because we're, we budgeted half of expected sales. Hopefully we'll be able to beat that a little bit and every week it's changing. I mean, the rules are changing programs are changing realities changing. We're meeting frequently to adapt to those changes and try to make the best decisions based on the data that we have available as it comes to us. Well with adaptation in mind in this time of distancing and stay at home orders, how are you staying connected to your family and friends. I've got one son live in here. I've got a daughter who works at the brewery living in Firestone and I've got a daughter who just graduated C last year, living with relatives in Italy. And I've got a brother in Armenia, I got a brother who when he's not at sea is a merchant marine in Texas, and a sister and her family and Washington and my folks in Las Vegas. So we, you know, family wise we have a family zoom call Sunday afternoons here, trying to time it so that it's not ridiculously late in Armenia and it's it's late night it's nighttime in Italy so we're using a lot of zoom. From a work standpoint, we're doing a lot of teams, a lot of team meetings, where you can share screens, and you just pop on to your, you talk to people through your computer. A lot more cell phone calls text emails, everything, everything that you can but but getting getting your teams together and at least talking face to face several times a day and checking up on status and getting getting help on things that we need. And we're doing weekly, all hands basically zoom calls on Friday afternoons at the end of the week, basically to update everybody that we've got whether they're part time full time for load or whatever so that they can stay up to date on the latest that we can figure out what's going on, and try to try to give them all the information we can we're we're super transparent open book company anyway but trying to keep everybody in the loop and keep everyone feeling connected because right now isolation is a big concern and we're really focused on people's mental health, as well as their financial well being. Well, it's, it's, I think safe to assume that whatever, whatever the new normal is on the other side of this life will be different in some ways. So the third question in these interviews is what would you like to see assuming that whatever will settle into a new normal and we're going to help are being in a position to help create some of that new normal. What do you want to see and what do you want to help create as the new normal on the other side of this pandemic. One of our, one of the most beautiful things I think that that we've been able to contribute to doing what we do brewing brewing and selling beer is build building community. And we've been really explicit with our people that is right now it is our duty to be operating as normally as we can in a safe way. And that we are strong and that we're going to survive because this is going to be a, we think this is going well into next year. And even then we think it's going to be a long slog years timeline not months, the slog out of the depression, that's likely going to result from this complete breaking action on on our economy on such a such a wide scale. People are going to be hesitant to come out like they used to be. People are going to be financially impacted in all variety of ways. And I think our biggest focus is going to be how do we get. How do we return to as close to we can to previous level of business and how do we help bring a sense of decency and civility and working together, you know, to help everybody get back on steady, steady, steady footing, you know, our tasting room is long monster living room. You know, it's like, this is where a diverse group of people come together intermingle, you know, talk throughout throughout the day at the end of their work day, and where we're able to then use that basic group of people to set the create the volunteer force that we then use in our big fundraisers that we do for throughout the year in the community. We also have a project going on right now that actually it's great to have a really a focus on on something that engage some of the people that might not otherwise. We're putting together a new tasting room and restaurant down in Curtis Park in downtown Denver. So we, that's a large space and we're hoping that that also will be opening, hopefully as the, the limitations come off of businesses able to operate. It's a big space, even if we're limited into quarter or half capacity, that we'll be able to actually start bringing people out of their homes and getting back together and trying to work to rebuild the community, you know, the social community, the public community after however many months we're going to end up, you know, sitting in our homes. Yeah. Well, those are, those are noble aspirations, and we appreciate the fact that you're thinking about them and pursuing them. So thank you again, Eric Wallace for your contribution to the long month voices and vision project. Take care yourself your family and all those folks are working for you. Thank you we're doing our best.