 All right, I want to welcome everybody to the Friday, July 24th virtual cup of joe with your town manager, Paul balkam in, and we have two special guests here from the Amherst area chamber, the director of the Amherst area chamber of commerce is Claudia Pasemani, and the Amherst downtown business improvement district director, Gabrielle Gould. So welcome to you both. Thank you. We are trying to channel our favorite coffee situations. So I'm at share here, and I think Claudia is down at Cushman's. We couldn't be there in person, but we're trying to make that work. Before we get started and start taking questions and inviting you all into the room, I'm going to give a few moments for your town manager to give any updates and then the same for both of our guests. So Paul. Hi, everybody. Good morning, early and welcome to Claudia and Gabrielle to the hardest living working women in downtown Amherst, excluding town hall. Just a lot going on. We appreciate it that the town council passed the FY 21 budget on Monday, which is really excellent news. Really, the leadership of the Griesmer is really helpful in moving this whole thing forward. So we have a budget. We have our plan to go forward. And one thing we know is that it's probably going to change because things are changing so rapidly and we'll probably be back looking at capital items in the budget again in the fall. We fully expect that. And so the council fully understands that. So this is going to be an ongoing conversation because we just don't know where the pandemic is carrying us and what are what we're looking at in terms of revenue for the town, what the economic situation in town is going to be. That's something we can talk about this morning because Claudia and Gabrielle have their fingers on the pulse of the town better than anybody, absolutely anybody. So I just thank the council for passing the budget. And there's a lot of a lot of other things going on and hoping to talk about anything that people want to enlist in the people if they have thoughts on things. And I'll take that opportunity to remind everybody to all of our attendees in the room. You can use the Q&A function within Zoom to put a question in the room. We'd love to hear from you live, however. So if you feel comfortable, raise your hand in the Zoom application or press star nine from the phone so you can come in and chat with the team here. And I'm sure most of the people in this room know both the bid in the chamber, Claudia and Gabrielle, but I'd love for them to just have a chance to give an update on their org. So Gabrielle is in my top left corner on my screen, so I'm going to have her go first. Good morning. So Paul's right, we've been busy. We have been running our own organizations and as well have been sort of pivoting and creating the Downtown Amherst Foundation into the micro-grant fund that has helped over 60 businesses in the Amherst area. My area is the Business Improvement District, so pretty much right downtown or exactly right downtown. And the chamber is a wider swath, and I'll let Claudia go into that. I'm looking forward to answering questions and talking about what we've been up to, but I can assure you that over the past five months, I don't think anybody's had a full day off. Good morning. Thank you for having me. I wish I was at Cushman right now, but I do go every morning and I will be there promptly after this meeting, but we can't be inside quite yet. But they are doing all the safety protocols. They are just I'm so proud of all the hard work that our owners are doing right now. And that is also what has kept Gabrielle and I busy working with owners to keep them to keep their protocols and also to make our consumers and our families aware of what they're doing to make things safe for you to go. I think the biggest piece that Gabrielle mentioned is obviously funding for our businesses, anything we can do to help them. And we've gone as far as to also additionally provide PPE for them, guidance, whatever they need, hand-holding, whatever. We've worked on grants together with the town as well. We're very appreciative of this. This has brought us all very close together, which I'm so appreciative. But that makes a lot of power in terms of accumulating some cash for acquiring anything that our businesses need from tables and umbrellas and so forth. So it's really been a challenge. And so that will continue. New CDBG funding has been announced and so hopefully some more businesses will benefit. So we're not done yet. And I think the obviously the focus right now is working with our universities, our schools, our colleges are now all returning and with the reopening plans. We want to be a partner in that and provide the safest possible return of our students to our community. And we know that's a big concern. So masks, masks, masks. So what's so strange is a few years, a few weeks, a month ago, no one knew what PPE meant, what social distancing meant. And now it's just a normal part of our vocabulary. So PPE is personal protection equipment. And what it used to be things that we thought of like as hazmat suits, but that's not what it is. It's gloves, masks, things like that. Sanitizer. Yeah, all of that. And it is it's an extreme cost that you don't really think about. And I don't think these businesses had any idea what was coming to them. And if you look at a restaurant situation or a barber situation or hairdresser where they have to constantly change their masks and their gloves, it adds up really fast. And just the amount of money that our businesses locally have had to spend to pivot and to change into what they are, even just takeout containers are so cost prohibitive when you really think about, you know, what the margin is. So being able to, through the Chamber of the Bids, it adds up really fast. Being able to, through the Chamber of the Bids and the DAF, purchase PPE in bulk and get it. That's another thing. It's hard to get still. Some things are very easy and they come and then all of a sudden next to you know, there's a run on masks again and you can't get anybody masks. So we're very fortunate to have gotten that in bulk and we've actually had a really nice time with our masks on going to each individual business and bringing them their packages of PPE. We've all been socially distanced for a long time. So to be able to knock on a door and place this down and step six feet apart and have a conversation with the business over and ours has been really valuable to us. And it's helped us be able to assess what they need more. It's one thing to make a phone call or to send an email, but it's really been this person to person is, you know, always best as we all know. I'm going to just take a second to remind the room to feel free to raise your hands. I see a lot of you out there. Raise your hands or pop a question in the Q&A at any point so we could put it to our expert guests here. Okay. Well, and to that point with Paul that the PPP is another new part of our vernacular. I do see Jeff in the room. So I'm going to put Jeff pull him in and just ask Jeff to unmute and introduce yourself. Good morning. Jeff Lee, Amherst resident. Good morning. Good morning. Thanks for meeting today. I was just wondering, I see a wide range of compliance with mask wearing in public places. I was wondering if the town's considered doing more enforcement of the mask wearing guideline. Thanks, Jeff. That's a great question. I guess it's something we get asked a lot about. So right now we're aligned with the state in terms of the mask wearing. And what the mask wearing rule is that if you cannot socially distance, you must wear a mask. And then there's all these exceptions if you have respiratory issues and things like that. The Board of Health on Monday is going to look at a mandatory mask regulation that will require people to wear masks, not advisory, but people wear masks downtown Amherst and other sort of areas where social distancing isn't quite as easy to do because our sidewalks are narrow. There's a lot of people on the streets. And I think their view is they want to designate specific areas as opposed to if you're walking down southeast street, you don't need to, by yourself, you don't need to have a mask on at that moment in time. But if you're walking downtown, you turn the corner, you might bump into somebody. You might bump into somebody to create a unity, a unifying way of approaching things. In terms of enforcement, enforcement is very touchy. We've seen this around the country become very controversial. So our intention is to have ambassadors that are going to have boxes of masks that they can offer to people, educating people, especially as students and faculty return to town. Nobody may not be familiar with the mask-wearing guidance. We have a bunch of signs coming in about wearing masks and social distancing and things like that. Then if the Board of Health actually does establish a regulation saying that you must wear masks, we'll have additional signage at the entrances to those areas. I'm thinking it might be aligned with the bid. Boundaries, maybe in the village centers, things like that. So we will have the ability to enforce. We really don't want to start writing tickets for not wearing masks. We really want to encourage compliance with mask-wearing by offering them. We've talked about this with the University and their first instinct is to educate sort of the Walk This Way program that we have with this university. That's worked very well because students are not like, I don't want to wear masks. They just may not be aware of it. So just helping guide students along, newcomers to town, visitors who are visiting college campuses, rules are different. The problem is that you go from one city to another, one state to another. You don't know what the rules are. I couldn't tell you what the rules are in Vermont, honestly. And unless someone helps you along the way, you just don't know the rules. So that's what the point is, is to create an environment downtown where the norm is that everyone is wearing a mask. So that creates a safe environment for anybody who wants to come downtown. They know that everybody, the norm is that people will be wearing masks. Thanks. Can I add to that? Do you mind? Yeah, go ahead. I think, well, Gabrielle and I, both the bid and the chamber are also partnering in terms of sending out that messaging. We are absolutely supportive of that mandate. We will do any shared messaging that we need to do to help that. I've already been asked by one of the teams that you mass, some of the off-campus students that are coming to prepare a sent message to distribute to those students. And most of those will be, it's actually their international off-campus students. So again, that'll be a group that, a targeted group of off-campus folks that I know has been, you know, of concern. So I'm really excited that we're having opportunity to again, share our messaging and to make that happen from the start. So what, you know, from day one, they know that masks are required. And just to add on, you know, absolutely supportive of this. And I think what it does is it just sets the comfort level for consumer confidence to come into our downtown and support our local businesses who so need that. And I think anecdotally yesterday, I was helping Rachel, the new owner at Passe Basta who is opening tonight for outdoor dining in case you don't have dinner plans. We were setting up and as I was walking down Main Street to her place, a couple in their fifties walked by without masks. Six high school students clearly were behind me. They all had masks on and I watched them walk. I watched them look at the couple without masks, all look at each other and two of the girls took their masks off. And I thought, yeah, that's interesting. You know, our younger people are going to look to the, to us and say, well, what are the rules and what am I supposed to do? So it was really interesting to see those masks come off when, you know, two people who could have been their parents walked by without them. So I think it's going to be a really great thing for our downtown area and our town centers. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Jeff. Yeah. Okay. So I have a question and a comment from Sarah. She wants to know what are the rules for takeout cocktails? And her comment is it seems like public drinking could increase. Thoughts. I mean, I will tell you that the rules are is that you're still not allowed to have an open container or a publicly consume alcohol. This was a way for Baker to help our restaurants a little bit more and have it so you can, you know, I don't know about a lot of people, but most people I think have a couple of key things in their homes, but don't really know how to make a. Negroni or, you know, maybe that's an easy one, but you know, some more complex cocktails. So, you know, I think about bartenders like Jeff at Australia. That's just amazing. And the fact that if my husband and I have a date night, we can not only order some great food from that restaurant, but Jeff can make us a couple of cocktails. They'll be sealed in baggies and then we can take them home, shake them over some ice and enjoy them in the comfort of our own home. I don't see this in any way becoming a New Orleans type situation anywhere in Massachusetts. Our laws here are very strict, but I do think Governor Baker did the right thing by making this possible. Our restaurants, our retail, everybody needs all the help they can get. So can you get takeout cocktails now is the question. Yes, you can. I think that is that they are required to be taken home. I mean, that is, they are required or, or, um, you know, I enjoyed on premise. So, um, you know, I know Mission Cantina is saying, you know, do you want that in the glass or do you want that in the baggie with a straw? I think it's almost a novelty item. Um, you know, for some people to have fun with, but I really do want to stress that Massachusetts takes their, their drinking and their ABCC laws very, very seriously. Um, and I don't see this becoming an issue. Um, I did see a hand up from, from Katie, but it went back down. So Katie, if you, if you did have a question, please just pop your hand back up and I'll pull you in the, into the room. I had a question too. I, you know, you see nationally that in some locations or businesses getting pushback from their customers about wearing a mask. Have you heard from any of your businesses? Um, or partners about that customers in our community. Being reluctant to wear a mask before coming in. Has that been an issue here? We've had a few. Yeah. Um, I think Amherst books has had a few, um, run-ins. I know our bank, uh, one of our banks had an issue with the customer. Um, more so than that. We, I think Claudia and I both have a couple of members who are women run businesses by themselves and they are afraid to open, um, because they don't know how they will handle this. Um, I think there's a lot more. I don't want to say there's a lot more fear than actual, um, issues. Yes. I, yeah. Um, but there's fear, right? Claudia. I actually, to your earlier point, I actually have found that the folks that have been resistant are older. Not necessarily. I know people are really worried about the students and I'm finding that the challenge has been resistance. Um, and an older population than I, so I'm a little surprised, but I'm not because if my parents are that they don't want to work with them, they hate them. Um, so, you know, and, and watch what you say, Gabrielle 50 and over. Um, a few terrible trust as it's 35 and over. So, but I just, I'm really, um, curious to see how that, you know, again, I think we need to continue shared messaging. Um, and, and if we have a mandate that can be something that we can all stand behind and rally behind. And I think that will help our businesses tremendously because there is a lot of concern. And we do have a lot of folks saying that they have health issues. Um, but that, you know, we don't really require documentation. So that's, it gets tricky. And I think Claudia and I get more phone calls, emails and, uh, text messages a day about I was downtown and saw some without a mask, then I'm never coming to your town if I have to wear a mask. So I'm going to say the odds are in our favor. And if someone really has issue and doesn't want to come to Amherst because they refuse to care for the health of others, I think our town can live without them. I've got a couple of questions that came into the Q and a, and I've got a raised hand. So, um, I'll take those in order. So, um, I believe it's Katie, but sorry, if it's not Katie asks, has anyone looked at the financial vulnerability of the cinema? Uh, I've spoken with the cinema quite a bit. Um, looking at different ideas on, on how they're coming back. They are in the middle of a renovation for, um, COVID, their return from COVID is the, the feedback that both Claudia and I are getting from the nonprofits is that this has been a very good, uh, fundraising cycle. Um, I think that there is a lot of support. People understand that they need support. Um, I cannot express enough that your nonprofits and your businesses need support. So if you have the capability, please support them. Um, I think the cinema has an amazing following. And I know that they're in the middle of an executive director search and we're really looking forward to, um, whoever takes over Carol's incredible, you know, literal foundation and builds on it. But I, I truly believe that they are going to come out of this strong. Claudia. I think they've, I think they've kept quite relevant too with their virtual cinema. They've done a lot to stay relevant. And again, a perfect example of pivot. Um, and they have a really loyal base. Like you said, um, I know, and we did talk about, they did try to launch an outdoor series. It's just something that just wasn't going to work out. Um, they had, we looked at other options. Um, but again, I think to Gabrielle's point, we should really just continue to support wherever we can. Um, and really hold them up at this point. Yeah, it's interesting because they did want to do, they did look into that outdoors, you know, different locations. And the town was really interested in supporting that. And I think, you know, it's hard to pull these things off and maintain. Safety for your staff and for your customers and not wanting to put anybody at risk and recognizing that, um, they do have such a loyal thing, the fan base and they're not going to put them in a plate situation where they feel it might not be comfortable for folks. So I do. One of the things that I think people could do is try and just imagine if we were not in a COVID world and how many times you might, you might go to Amherst Cinema this month and cut them a check or get online and hit the donate button and, you know, same thing with museums or any other nonprofits that you might get something in return for. Um, and then the nonprofits that you personally don't get anything in return for, um, just think about your donation that you could have done or would have done. And, and if you can try and double it, um, this is, this is the time and they're going to be preparing for next fiscal year, more so than this fiscal year. I see, um, my friend Ken in the room with his hand raised. So I am bringing Ken in if you can unmute and introduce yourself, please. Thank you. Thank you. I'm Ken Rosenthal. I live on Sunset Avenue. We all know that the, um, great engine for the economy in this town or the educational institutions, especially the university. And yet we have people very worried about what's going to happen when the university students come back and Paul, you're dealing with this a few years ago, the town gown committee that led to the development of rental permits, um, for that committee, Ralph Call from did a study and he found that virtually a hundred percent of the complaints that came into the police department about student behavior in town came, uh, with regard to students who lived in residences where the owner was not a resident, not present. But the, the shorthand is absentee landlord. The landlords in town are a business community. And, um, yesterday, John Thompson was talking about the need to have neighbors report problems that they see, but there's another way to approach this too. And I think it falls to Gabrielle and Claudia to do this. You need, I think to talk to the landlords who are owners of residential properties and have them understand how important it is to have their residents obeying the law. They're the first line of defense here. And I don't think we can afford to wait till people may complaints about what happens. I think we need to be proactive and reach out to the landlords in an organized way, not to, not to try to blame them for anything, but to try to get them to support our efforts to have appropriate behavior during this very difficult time. And I wonder whether you too, or all of you could comment on whether that would be possible and whether, and how you think you might be able to do that. Thank you. I'll lead and you guys can jump in. So the town and the university does work very closely with the large landlords of the apartment complexes for the most part, even next Wednesday. I think there's a meeting at the, and this happens every year with the police department and fire department and inspection services. They meet with all the landlords around this time of year, every year to talk about what they anticipate what's going on, what how last year went and things like that. And all the land, all the major landlords or the representatives are there. It's a really free flowing conversation. As you know, Ken, nothing's as easy as just like tell your students to, you know, tell the, tell your tenants to be act appropriately. There's always a lot of complexity to it, but the landlords overall have been very cooperative. And I think, you know, we even had a situation recently that the council president and councilor, D'Angelo's were involved with where the inspection services and Bill Laramie from the police department were meeting with the owner of an absentee landlord. If it were, as it were, of a proper of an individual house, that landlord was super responsive. And wanting and being the person to talk to the tenants about, about what was expected and things like that. So it's an ongoing conversation there that goes on constantly. And landlords, most landlords, especially the ones that own multiple properties are really on board. They don't, you know, they, they're always, they're always working with the Amherst police department and to make sure that these, that the neighborhood complaints are minimized. I'll back up that. I can only speak to the landlords that are in the bid who are some of the larger apartment buildings who have had historically the least issues. You know, in our downtown area, every landlord that I have spoken to is very open. They are speaking with Paul. They are speaking with the university. I guess what I would like to stress is that our landlords, our rental properties, our university, our college, our town and our community, we all need this to work and we all need this to be as safe as, as humanly possible. And I don't think any sector of this is taking this lightly. You know, if, if, if all of a sudden all the college students disappeared, our landlords would be in more than a little bit of a pickle. So it's really important to them that this works as well. And I'll just say that we're also part of a coalition that meet, I think we're meeting next week as well. And I agree that the landlords are asking their, their concerned. So any messaging around mass order or a mandate, all of that signage, a lot of that's going to happen and be shared. So they are going to be supporting and re, and reinforcing that messaging. I have no doubt. And we are partnering with them. And we're also working with them as well. I would actually say my stretch is a little wider. So the chamber is just, is Amherst wide. We are Hadley, Sunderland, Belcher town. So even our neighboring town. So we, we actually work a lot with the property owners, even in Sunderland who have a lot of student housing. So, and we are getting signage to them. So we're really trying to get as far, reach as far out as possible again, to keep everyone as safe as possible. Thanks, Ken. Thank you. Thank you. Again, so Ken, go ahead and. You're still in the room. I'd just like to then expand on that one little bit. There are lots of landlords who are individuals who are not members of the bid because they're not in the center of town. They're not members of the chamber. I spoke to one the other day who lives, doesn't live in Amherst and he owns a house here and he's thrilled that he's able to rent it. So we do know who every landlord is because of the rental property. So I guess one suggestion I might make is that we simply take that list. And which includes people who you do not know personally and reach out to them in writing and explain to them in writing what the rules are and what we're going to be expecting of their tenants. That may be a one-time broadcast effort to try to do it. Thank you very much for this. Yeah. No, I think that's a real, that's a really good idea, Ken. And because there are a lot of individual property owners who don't live in town. They've kept their house in town, they rented or whatever. And, but we also talked with proper management firms. So it's not just the landlords. It's also people who manage their properties. Many people hire someone local each managed their property for them. If they don't live in town. So, yeah, but I think the idea of doing a blanket mailing like that is really a good one. I'll check into that. And it's technically very possible, Paul. So I can help you with that. Thank you, Ken. If you have another question, just feel free to pop your hand back up when you do a couple of questions and comments in the Q and A chat here. Jeff says heading to my next meeting. Thank you all for the session. Thank you, Jeff. Tina wants to know when Bachi on the common will start. I like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is that, forgive me. I'm not yet a year into the bid. So I did not experience a summer. If that is a bid event or promoted thing, I can tell you right now that we won't be doing any of our normal summer programming. In, you know, just. Keeping. Is it not. Okay. Great. Okay. No, no, no. It's very serious. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think there was an art installation at, I think it was a Kendrick, right? Where there were Bachi. And I was terrified of it because I was thinking, okay, you forgot these Bachi balls and how you help keep. And then the person who put it together. It was sort of art with participatory art in some ways. The person got put it together. I think they had. A local business said, I'll hold on to the Bachi balls. People can check them out. Cause I think we're going to leave a bunch of like heavy things to make sure it's all right. I'm not. I'm not going to let it just go through. It's like terrified of this. I think it was really popular. I think it was on Kendrick Park, right? Tina has her. She asked the question originally. So I'm going to invite Tina in cause she's got her hand on. Let's hear it. You might just unmute and introduce please. Welcome. Hi. Tina Swift. I live in South Amherst. And behind that, that was the serious question about the Bachi, do, and you can conduct social distancing. But I'm sure I'm not the only senior who's living alone and is like dying on the vine for social connection. And I don't necessarily see anything coming out of the senior center. And I understand it's very difficult. But when I noticed you had the cooling tent, maybe the town can put some chairs in the tent and say, Tuesday at 10 AM, we're going to talk about bocce or whatever, something of someplace for lonely geezers such as myself to go and have a discussion. And maybe while you're in town, buy a cup of coffee or a snack. That was it. It's a really interesting idea. And we have this tension because we're saying we don't want people to gather. But we also want people to come downtown and you've identified the real social deficit that people are feeling every day. I mean, Tina, you're a super social person and that must be real. It's really hard. And so that's a really interesting idea about maybe having a prescribed thing. I think the director of senior services has done a tremendous job. And she was texting me last night looking for somebody who knows a lot about sports to sort of lead a Zoom talk about sports for seniors. And just because Red Sox season is starting, they want somebody who's going to chew it over the next day. Because usually you go to the coffee shop to do that. She's trying to create that kind of virtual location. But an actual physical location, that's like the tent. I think that's sort of an interesting idea. I like that idea. Thank you, Tina. I think you can mark, botchy balls are tricky, but you could mark your own balls that you're using and use them throughout the game and not touch anyone else's. I think you could somehow do that but then sanitize them after each game. I think it could work. But I like the tent idea. I'm all about botchy. But I think the tent idea could really work. Maybe some yoga for seniors. I mean, there's something you could do outside and coffee hour, all kinds of things you could do. I mean, the thing I found the hardest was if you're outside in your socially distanced, it's just hard to hear if you're out in the middle of town because there's so much traffic and stuff. It's just the ambient noises. I mean, that's why I'm inside instead of out on the streets right now because it was just kind of loud because there's a lot of trucks in the morning, especially. And that's the only downside to trying to do something outside. I know even a book club, a senior book club outside, you can safely distance. I think that'd be great. Some things to think about for sure. Thank you for your suggestion and your question, Tina. I have a question from Sarah who wants to know, have any local businesses closed for good? It's a tough one, I know. Well, officially, who do we have officially? Officially, we've lost Bart's ice cream, which is unfortunate. Head games beauty has moved out of state. I feel like there's a couple other... I'm hedging because we have a couple that are not official and public yet, so I don't feel comfortable saying, but those are the two right up the top of my head that have closed completely. Look, I mean, I was on a call the other day that was giving statistics. James Beard did a survey and they say 60 to 70% of small restaurants are going to close within the next year. Yelp did a survey and they're already, I think it's something like 120,000 businesses have closed across the country, all small businesses. We are seeing some of the larger stores go into bankruptcy and things like that. Personally, I feel like some of them are using COVID as an excuse. I look at J.Crew and I'm like, come on, were you really relevant? Of course, not in the 90s anymore, but the fact of the matter is, we are going to lose some of our businesses and that is very, very hard to stomach. And the Chamber of the Bid have raised over $320,000 for micro-brand relief. We know that we have CBDG funds coming for micro-business relief. And our hope is that with these funds, which we're continuing, we can give them the resiliency to hold on until our market comes back. I have said this so many times, I feel like a broken record. Amherst lost the equivalent of the Capon Islands and the Berkshires July and August. Our July and August was March and April and we were literally in shutdown during that time. So we look at our neighbors in our summer places and they're in phase three of this. Not great, they're not doing the numbers that they would like to do, but there are a lot further ahead than we were. So we as an area, I truly believe were hit on a level that not a lot of Massachusetts has suffered and our businesses really need support. And again, I really express the people, if you don't feel comfortable going out to eat in our outdoor dining that we have worked so hard with the town and the town's been so remarkable in making all this happen. I understand that, I do. And if you can do takeout, please do that. If you can't, try and buy gift certificates. I don't care if you ever use them, but it's just a great way to do it. And our retail, retail is really hard right now because I think we've all, we've all been at home for a really long time and we're all really good at hitting ad to cart and by golly, it's there the next morning. So our retail therapy is almost as instant as it would be if we were going to the store. But our friends, Zana at Clay's, AJ Hastings is coming back in another week or so. They've been doing a lot of renovation and cleaning up of their store. If there's any way you can support these businesses, now is the time. And I cannot stress that enough. And we know that people are spending money because if you look at Walmart and you look at Amazon and you look at anything online, those numbers are through the roof. Those guys are making billions of dollars. So take that and bring it into town. And if you're only going out to dinner once a week, try and tip more than you normally ever would. And same thing with your hairdresser and your barber. I sent my boys down to map barber and gave them each a hefty wad of cash. And they were like, wow, what's all this for? And I was like, it's for Matt, it's not for you. Because they miss free haircut. So there's some money that we didn't spend. And I say that only to the people who can and who have that comfort level. I'm not saying everybody, I understand. And I understand that there are layoffs and furloughs and I also understand that the future is very uncertain. But if you can right now, please support your small, small mom and pop businesses. I think the only thing I can add to that is there is Amherst copy who's not going to be staying in town. They have officially announced. I know they were hoping, they're keeping their name. They're really hoping to keep their customers. It was a difficult decision, but they have a space they own in Hadley and a space they were renting here. And again, you have to remember that people, even those that are in business and they're open and we're so happy they're open, they're making maybe 25% as what they were making before. And of course that means they're also only hosting that the relevant number of employees they need then to manage at 25%. So you're talking unemployment's going to stay down. They're not making and they're not making anymore. They're just hanging on by a thread. So anything we can do to keep them going is as Gabrielle said, just buy a lot of gift cards, start shopping now. You can fill your cart with gift cards. You can satisfy that same need. You can fill your cart, but fill it with gift cards from local businesses and just help them. So, and again, maybe go to that person that you thought of that's vocal as opposed to the person you might be going that's several towns over. Because right now we need everyone to support. I also wanna stress, and I know this goes a little bit into politics, but I've heard a lot of people say, oh, it's that extra $600 coming from the pandemic unemployment assistance. And I can assure you it's not. We have businesses in town who pre-COVID had 20 to 32 employees and they are working with two or three employees right now. They would love to bring their employees back. Their employees would love to come back to work. They just don't have the business to do it. So, it's really easy to say like, oh, all these people are making so much money on unemployment. They don't wanna come back to their normal job. That is not what we're hearing and it's not what we're seeing. I've got a comment slash question here from Katie. Could you set up a movie on the commons? Paul? Yes, yes, we could. But I think we really are trying. I think Paul said it best a couple of minutes ago. We are all walking this very, very fine line where we're asking you to come and support. We're asking you to maybe meet with your pod of friends who are like-minded to you out for dinner in open air. But we're also, it's a really hard, it's kind of like a block party. We were like, oh, if we only let so many people in at a time and if we put dots on the road that are like, you stand here and then move here and are there ways? And Claudia and I are both very like-minded in that I think our entire careers have been based on, it's all been a nonprofit and it's all been about bringing people together. And I wake up sometimes and I'm like, oh my God, I have this incredible idea. We're gonna do this event and we're gonna have this party and it's gonna be fundraising, it's gonna be beautiful. And we can't do that. So could there be movies on the common? Absolutely. The cinema looked into that very, very strongly as a possibility. Again, it comes down to safety concerns and it comes down to gathering. And as much as we want to see everybody again and our friend Tina Swift, my heart breaks for so many people that are alone because they're not getting the social interaction. I mean, I'm a massive extrovert and I'm crushed not seeing all of my humans and my friends. The bringing people together right now just seems to set the wrong message. And also, especially when we're talking about the students coming back. So how do we bring 100 people onto the common for a movie and little kids are running around and people are seeing who haven't seen each other. And we forget, right? We forget that we're supposed to be six feet apart. So we get together and we're smiling and we're laughing and we're crawling into each other's hula hoop space just to catch up and say hi, but then there's gonna be a party of 45 kids at a house, three blocks outside of town and everybody's going to be calling the police and saying shut it down. So we're in a really tough place. It's a really hard place, especially for people like Claudia and I whose entire lives have been events. Yeah, Katie, and as you can appreciate this is such a, the chamber is not holding any in-person events this year through the end of 2021. The only in-person event we are hosting is our annual golf tournament. And that has come with a high number of stipulations, regulations. Pooley Dickinson is offering theirs with enormous safety protocols. And we are able to keep everyone separate. We're not having a separate celebration that we normally have. I mean, things just look differently, but golfers want to get out there. They're already golfing and we felt comfortable doing that. But we're not bringing people together and we're separating. And so it's a whole entire day. I know Pooley Dickinson is spreading theirs out over several days for that reason, because they have a much larger tournament and just to ensure that people are safe distance. So things are just looking really different. We've been talking about posting a drive-in and so we are considering some other ideas. So hope, stay tuned. But again, yes, we all want to see, I mean, I think the beauty of any of us who've lived here long enough, I've raised both my kids here in the 20s now. You know, the beauty of being on that common with your kids or with your family or with your, you know, spouse or partner. I mean, it's the best thing. We've seen a lot of people do picnicking up out there safely and socially distanced. We encourage that. But again, it's really hard to walk the line of encouraging safe distancing and then hosting events. So we're just really being cautious. So Sarah wants to know when Amherst books will be open for browsing. Very soon. They were, when I spoke to them last, which was a week ago, their plexiglass was on back order as much materials are in this day and age as everybody's trying to get open. But they are getting their plexiglass in to set themselves up. They are working as a team, three of them, Nat, Sharon, sorry, Shannon and one other key employee and they will be doing it by appointment and browsing. And I don't know if everybody's on social media, but if you are, please follow the bid and the chamber on Facebook as well as Instagram. We update daily, you know, what people are up to. Also, both of our websites has a running list of businesses that are open and how they're open. So it kind of answers that question and we update that constantly as well. Actually, John Page updates that constantly because he's amazing. I check it every Thursday and Friday before placing my takeout order. So I have to say thank you for that. I do see that council president, Lynn Griezmer is in the room, not to put you on the spot, Lynn, but if you wanted to come in and say hi or make any comments, feel free to raise your hand and I'll bring you in the room, but no pressure. Oh, there she goes. I knew she would be up for that. She always is. Hi, Lynn. Hi, Lynn. On mute, you're in the room. Good morning. Thank you. I just wanna truly acknowledge the efforts of the bid and the chamber in support of our businesses and support of our town. And I think what Paul and myself and the other counselors are now trying to work on is how to create a message for all of our citizens about safety and mask wearing. One that sets an expectation for, again, not just students, but older people, younger people, middle-aged people. Just this is what our town needs, this is what we expect of you. And we're glad to see the kind of support and interest we're getting in the idea of having some kind of regulation like that. The Board of Health, as Paul mentioned, will be discussing it on Monday. And other than that, I just wanna, again, acknowledge the outstanding efforts of our lease force and recognize that this has been not been an easy time for them, they're human. Listening to criticism is tough. And what we've passed a budget that also gives us an opportunity to look at the future of public safety in our town. So thank you for having this and enjoy. Thank you, Lynn. I just wanna thank the town, you know, six months ago we had a relationship with our council members and Paul and our sort of Paul calls it the second floor, all the licensing people. And that relationship today is so different and so collaborative and we have worked so hard together. And this has been, nobody can deny it, this has been an excruciating period of time. I also just wanna say that our community, police officer Casey Nigel and I, when we brought artists, we brought 24 artists downtown to paint the really ugly Jersey barriers that are now works of art and beautiful. And he and I, he was helping us just make sure that none of them got hit by cars, because of course they're squatting on the street side. He and I had this really great conversation and I loved his comment about our students coming back. And his comment was that we are looking at the greatest minds of our future. We are looking at our future leaders, our future scientists, doctors, engineers, artists, actors, just everything. UMass presents, promotes and turns out some of the greatest minds. And there are gonna be a couple who are just really young and that frontal lobe thing, I'm a mother of boys. It takes a while and there are gonna be some bumps in this road and we're gonna have a couple of these kids who don't get it or don't wanna get it. And I think education is going to be key. And we are one of the most educated places in the Northeast and I think that we have an opportunity to create a model for other communities and to integrate our college students, our grad students and our grown up people, students of life as we all are. And I really, I'm looking forward to our students coming back. I'm looking forward to working with our landlords. And I'm looking forward to seeing some support and coming back to our businesses. And I'll reiterate that I'm just so appreciative that Gabrielle and I come with a lot of ideas to Paul and to Lynn and we are so appreciative that again, this circle has widened but it has strengthened and that we are all working together to make this the best possible. And as you said, the model town and the model college town, I think that it's an opportunity if anything, if we can really come together. And I'm seeing all of us come together in ways we never did before and lines blurred, which I really love. I think the silos that we live in, we are experts in our silos, which is fantastic but sharing that and crossing those lines to the common good, I have never seen a greater momentum than right now. So that is one of the silver linings that I hope continues after this. So, and I hope this is ending very soon but it's the same so. So we just got a quick comment from Katie that says, thank you all, thank you, Katie for your questions. So I wanna give a last call to questions. We're coming close to the end of our hour. So I just wanna give you everyone in the room another chance to pop their question in or to come in and ask your question live. So feel free to take that time to do that now. If you have anything you wanna say. So I wanna talk about, so the bid sent out an email or something about lobster rolls and so we saw that last week I went home and everybody's like on board lobster rolls. So now we're on a mission to go to every place that sells lobster rolls in town. So last night, first we went to Bistro 63, last night we went to Amherst coffee we got 30 in a boltwood on the agenda. It's just, it's been actually kind of fun. And the other, the key to this is don't go too early. There was a line down the street to get into Amherst coffee at five o'clock but by 6.30, there was plenty of room. We went late cause I had a meeting and we went at 8.30 and still they had two lobster rolls left. So we got those, my daughter and I got those and had drinks and it was really just a lovely night outside. They were really good about all the, all the sort of standards that you would hope for. Our businesses have been really superb. So we've been making it a mission canteen, a mission to go out multiple places. And I really don't want to get this disease but I felt very, very comfortable to all the restaurants I've been to so far. And so many of them are doing such good work. Jake's mission, you know, bistro, oriental flavors of La Verra Crizzana, you know, what's the name of the other one in South Amherst? El Camolito. El Camolito. Yes, that's what, that was Saturday night. It's a favorite. And that was Saturday night. We got takeout there, that was so good. So it's just really happening and these, and they're all small businesses. You know, we're talking to the owners of the businesses who are coming out and saying thank you for showing up. And it's, they're working their butts off to make sure their livelihoods stay intact. So it's really, you know, we do takeout. We do, I like going out just to be in there. So again, I mean, we're all doing, I know everybody in this call, I know Briana is, you're in front of the center of these things. Professional takeout artists. Yeah. But we have so many more restaurants to hit, so it's great. See, the global dining options here, right? Exactly. I mean, we're a destination. Our American passwords are pretty much useless at this point. So, you know, my take on this is, you know, get over to Oriental Flavor and get some, you know, some great cuisine there, Shanghai Gourmet, phenomenal. We just have so many options downtown. And I just, I do want to stress what a global cuisine we have here. It is not just quote unquote Asian, which I've heard from so many people. We got crispy fried chicken, Korean fried chicken from the bubble tea lime red and crispy chicken place the other day. And I have to say, and that's all I know, you're vegetarian, but really just phenomenally good. And we've got so many options out there. And every single restaurant is taking this so seriously. They are working so hard, as you said. And you are correct, every single one is being run every day by the owner. They are there and they are the ones taking your order. I think probably the hardest thing for some people is that most restaurants are now, everything is online. So you have to bring your phone, you have to have a good signal and you have to sort of, you know, be able to do that. But once you've done it once, it's really easy. And once you've put your stuff in the system, it sends you a code that says, may I charge your debit cards? And you're like, yes, you may. So it is a little tricky the first time. I remember the first time I went to get coffee at Cher. I just, you know, the interaction was just being like latte, cash out the door. It's like, nope, you back up, you do it on your phone and all of a sudden you're amazing latte is there. So it's a different world. So tell us what BastiBoss is doing. So we're really excited for them. They are going out in back of their building onto the pavers that are between mass vintage and what will hopefully return lit and it's that area in between. So they have worked with the landlord who owns those properties and she has given them a very kind lease to be able to use that space. So they are wrapping up tables, I believe I'm meeting them at 11 for their final inspection. And they are planning on serving dinner tonight outside, they've put beautiful tents up, planters. It really is, it's beautiful. And I wanna remind people that this is all very European. This is all very, you know, the South Fresco dining. So yeah, you're gonna hear cars and people are gonna walk by you. And you know, unfortunately, you know, there might be garbage, you know, a little bit down the road from another restaurant. But, you know, again, none of us can get on planes and go anywhere. So just think that you're in Italy sitting. You know, I'm gonna take that step further because when you go to Italy, who runs the restaurant? The parents, the kids, you meet them. Their kid is like serving, mom is cooking, dad's at the bar, every time you go. And they're like in a full family fight and everybody's yelling and you're like, this is fantastic. And I promised I wouldn't get emotional on these calls, but this is very emotional. And I think that I have never seen more kids, like parents, you know, kids are home now, college age kids are home and they're working remotely. So a lot of these kids are helping their parents run the businesses. A lot of them that I've gone into when I've delivered PPE, they're with their kids. And so you are supporting and I'm gonna get emotional and you're supporting families. So I'll leave it there. Yeah, I loved it. We ordered takeout from India Palace downtown and you know, their kids there. And you know, the parents are not very fluent with English, so we've gone there a lot, but we've never had a conversation with anybody. And you know, it's really nice to be able to talk to him and hear what the conversation is and how it's going. And so yeah, these are our friends, our neighbors, these are our families. Can't say it enough, Jeff Bezos is fine. You do not have to keep supporting him. He will make it, but your local people do need your help. I think that's a really important message. And I thank you both for saying it so eloquently and in many different ways to our attendees today and to the folks who are gonna watch this recording, hopefully after we put it up. I don't see any other hands or questions in the room at this point, so I would love to give everybody just kind of a second to say there any parting words that you have to the attendees or to the viewers. And we can start with Claudia. As I wipe a little bit of a tear, it's hyper emotionally charged. And I just wanna say that some people think, oh my gosh, this is the worst time. I'm actually really grateful to be at the chamber at this time because the connections are far deeper than they ever were before. And I feel like when we do come out of this that we are gonna be a stronger community and really represent who we are and what we do to the greater world out there once we can have them all back and welcome you with open arms. We will be better than ever. So I just again, appreciate the support and I love working with Gabrielle. Her energy obviously, it's contagious and with Paul, he's been open to working with us and to support our businesses. And I'm just, I'm really, really humbled to work as a servant for our businesses and their families. Thank you, Gabrielle. Second Claudia, I remember when I first started working at the bid less than a year ago, John Page and Ann Tweedy who worked for the chamber and the bid respectively, the two of us, Claudia and I and the decibel range that we can cover in a very short and exciting period of time. I think I had both of them going, oh boy, here we go. So no, just a joy to work with Claudia and the things that we have accomplished through the Downtown Amherst Foundation. Again, still very much alive. Quick donate now, it's downtownamherstoundation.org. So we can continue to support our local businesses. Working with the town cannot stress enough. It is a very solid relationship and we know that we come at you with 180 ways that we can work together and that we have accomplished so many of them has been really amazing. And yes, this has been a really, really hard time and I joke with Toni Maroulis. You told me this was a marketing job and it's the antithesis of a marketing job but I feel very proud to be where I am. It has thrust me into the community and like Claudia, I get very emotional and because of this, Amherst is now my home and we knew that we were moving and we knew that we chose to move here but boy, is this our home, that's awesome. I love to hear that. Thank you so much for both of you sharing your experiences and it blurs the line between personal and professional because it's all one community and that really comes through when you guys are talking about your work. Before I wrap officially, we did just get one last question in and I think it's important because if it is still up, Sarah wants to know, is there still a virtual tip jar? Yes, it's a lot on both our websites, I believe. So yes, please tip generously at this time and I actually did forget to say please be nice to our owners. If you see something, say something but please criticism with a healthy dose of sugar because they are working really hard but they do want to hear your feedback. So if something is happening, just try to go to them directly if you can. So that's good advice. All right, so we're at the end of our hour, Paul. Anything you want to say before we leave? No, I think, well again, kudos to the leadership of the bid and the chamber. The Downtown Amherst Foundation was set up to do a whole different mission and pivoted and changed directions to support local businesses in a different ways, really set up to help get a performing arts center on the common things like that. And so that's not as big a priority as keeping businesses in business and it was just really great to see the bid switch that around really quickly and so again, when I think about this, it's, I fear that we're gonna be in this for a long time and I think we have to be honest to ourselves about that. I think, this is our sweet spot. We've got some good weather, when the weather turns, when after Thanksgiving, I think we're gonna have to redouble our efforts on a lot of these issues and really focus on making sure our downtown stays vital. Our downtown and our business community will be strong. We have great university and colleges in an area. We have the fundamentals to continue on but we're probably gonna go through some difficult times. But the key thing is this is we have systems in place with people in place who are really great and that's what's gonna get us through this. Okay, well, I wanna again say thanks to everybody and thanks to all the attendees. If you had a question on something you heard today or you wanna follow up, you can email us at info at amherstma.gov. If it's specific to the bid or the chamber, I'll make sure they get it. So have a great day, everybody. Thanks, Brianna. Thanks, Brianna. Happy Friday. Happy Friday. Happy Friday. You made it. Bye. Bye.