The Reopen Wrangell Task Force, made up of several representatives across the community, met last Monday afternoon to discuss ways to assist Wrangell's economy through the COVID-19 pandemic. The task force recently sent out a survey to local businesses to see what their needs are. The survey became available Friday, April 24. Kate Thomas, with the Wrangell parks and recreation department, said they have received 27 responses. Two of them were test runs from city officials, she said, but the bulk of them came in on Friday and Monday. Many of the responses came from lodging and overnight stay businesses, she said. They have also gotten responses from retail and "nonessential public facing" businesses. There were also a few responses from businesses regarding intrastate travel and personal care services.
"I will create a PDF copy of the responses and itemize them by the individual business responses, so you can get a pulse on where folks are at, specific to their realm," Thomas said. "Of those 27 or 25 businesses, 16 of those businesses closed due to COVID and 11 remained open with modified operations."
One thing that Thomas said was interesting from the survey, is that seven businesses plan to reopen in the near future, 11 do not have such plans, and seven more businesses are tentatively planning to reopen soon. Some businesses are just not choosing to reopen, she said, and for whatever reasons they have are choosing to wait and see what happens in the near future.
"That's kind of the general sentiment of the tourism business, as well," added Caitlin Cardinell. "Things generally don't fire up until mid to late May anyways and, at least to speak for my operators they don't see a point for reopening now or within the next couple of months."
The task force also discussed the recent Health Mandate 16, the first phase of the state plane to reopen Alaska's economy. Jamie Roberts said that people can likely expect increasing amounts of time between different phases of the reopening plan, as the state reacts to how communities handle each previous phase of reopening. Some towns are not really planning to reopen, she also said. Roberts said that Juneau has asked their businesses to voluntarily stay closed for the short term, until the assembly decides what local restrictions they want to put in place. It is kind of a wait and watch the numbers game, she said, to see when the next phases of reopening should begin.
"This is going to get really muddy," Roberts said. "We're not going to be able to see the true effects of a phase one opening if we're not opening."
During the meeting, the task force also discussed PPE needs for businesses, such as masks, gloves, and disinfectant, and also discussed businesses putting up signage encouraging customers to socially distance and wear face masks.
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