How COVID-19 is shaping business models for area

SANDPOINT — Although Bonner County has only confirmed one COVID-19 case, Sandpoint officials are responding to the global threat with a sense of urgency.

Following the health and safety of the community, Sandpoint Administrator Jennifer Stapleton said business security and longevity is the city’s most pressing issue at this time.

“There is a lot of discussion nationally around shutting things down,” Stapleton said. "But we are talking about bringing things back up. We are giving that consideration and we are considering the impacts.”

One way the city of Sandpoint has been proactive with their efforts amid the novel coronavirus outbreak has been creating a business survey for owners to report closures or reduced service as well as providing the opportunity to express their needs during the pandemic. According to Stapleton, all non-essential business owners and employees voluntarily complied with CDC recommendations for social distancing.

There are approximately 800 businesses with licenses in the city limits and over 100 businesses have completed the forms to announce closure or partial closure. It has become increasingly clear to the city that business owners are worried, and not just for the longevity of their businesses but for the sake of their employees as well.

“These were extremely difficult decisions to make because they knew it was the right thing to do for their community safety but they are putting members of their extended family out of work,” Stapleton said.“We have a number of them attempting to carry on with online service and take home delivery, but the word from all of them is that sales are down substantially.”

The surveys provided by the city have been helpful in gathering data for state officials in the hopes of receiving financial relief in the future. Stapleton said the city has participated in weekly teleconference calls with Governor Brad Little, relaying the needs of the Sandpoint community. Unlike many surrounding cities in Idaho, Sandpoint is not eligible for entitlement funds for low income populations which puts the city at a greater financial deficit.

“Our business community has been seeing the impacts of this COVID-19 pandemic for several weeks now … and where we can comply with the governor’s orders, where we can comply with the CDC’s recommendations of social distancing, we are doing what we can on the city front to try to keep industries moving and jobs for our community members where we can," Stapleton said.

One of those jobs is the construction industry and the second phase of the Downtown Revitalization project, which resumed March 16. This work is considered essential critical infrastructure, according to Little’s executive order. The city is hoping to increase efficiency with downtown beautification efforts, while travel is already restricted and many retail businesses are limited. The project is set to finish early May.

“We are working with the contractor to finish this project as quickly as possible in the hopes of having it completed before businesses open back in town,” Stapleton said.

In addition to pushing construction projects, the town has been looking to boost the economy by utilizing online systems.

“We are doing things on a couple of fronts,” Stapleton said. “City Hall is closed down and we are functioning in various areas as kind of a virtual city hall. Our staff are working from home, we are processing building permits and inspections online, and we were already in the process of launching that new electronic service actually long before we were ever talking about COVID-19, so we were really fortunate that our efforts dovetailed, that we had done all of our testing, we were ready for the full implementation just shortly before this happened.”

City instruction to staff has been “to get those permits moving ... so we can keep jobs moving where jobs are allowed during our current recommendations.”

If there is a pause on development projects, Stapleton said the city will need to prepare for a larger issue of supply and demand, which could increase the cost of existing housing and drive away businesses. “We will see a shift of workers moving away from that industry, looking for work in other industries where work exists and when we saw the downturn of the economy back in 2008, we saw many people leave the building industry," she said. “We have just begun to recover from that so it’s an industry for when we can do so, we keep moving.”

Special event permits have been canceled at this time and no new permits will be issued through April 30. Stapleton predicts a down year for tourism, however, she believes the town’s innovation is what will help Bonner County and Sandpoint survive the hardship to come from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are a community that is known to be innovative, that’s the history that we are known for," Stapleton said. “We have some exciting things that will likely be announced in the coming days about businesses partnering together and retaining jobs through innovation and those are efforts from the city side we fully support. We are doing everything we can to make that happen and remove local hurdles that cause any delays.”

In the meantime, Sandpoint city officials have partnered with Bonner County Economic Development Corporation to provide technical assistance to business owners and to review the status of stimulus packages and employee benefits. The Sandpoint Police Department has also adjusted staffing to provide greater security for businesses during shutdown.

“There is nothing to look to in terms of what is the right decision," Stapleton said.

“We continue to daily have conversations about how we can keep the community safe and comply with all of the recommendations and it’s constantly balancing that with what we do on the other side coming out of this.”

Aly De Angelus can be reached by email at adeangelus@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @AlylDailyBee.