Page 65 - BusinessWest February 17, 2021

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that apply to many places of business. The first was making sure employees understood safety protocols and the importance of keeping themselves out of harm’s way.
“We immediately talked to our staff about their concerns, and our staff came to understand that this pandemic was real, and something that affects every- one’s bottom line — not just the business bottom line, but each person’s bottom line,” he said. “Our people took this very seriously, and everyone knew they had to behave in a way that minimized exposure and minimized transmission, to not bring it into the office and spread it amongst each other.”
The second step was communicating with patients, who were screened twice by phone before appointments — with questions about possible COVID exposure — and then again on the day of the appointment. If there was any doubt, patients were rescheduled or moved to telehealth visits.
Finally, Lee put in physical safeguards in the office, from PPE — he collected so much, he was able to donate 1,000 facemasks to Baystate Health last April — to installing 22 HEPA-filter air purifiers, at least one for every room. “We have a 50-page COVID safety protocol,” he added.
For customers who visit Yankee Mattress, Noblit said, the store is completely sanitized multiple times a day, with attention paid to common touch points like door handles and surfaces, while customers are given a sanitary sheet — he calls it a ‘comfort test guard’ — to lay on as they try various mattresses. Plastic barriers also went up at counters to separate customers from staff.
“We wanted customers to feel safe and come in and do what they needed to do, and not have to worry about any issues with that,” he noted.
Making people feel confident to go about their business should be a community-wide effort, Lee suggested.
“It comes down to normalizing people’s behavior. That involves dealing with the COVID virus itself,
Amherst
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ing “quality-of-life developments,” as Bockelman called them, such as the newly opened Groff Park and the building of a new playground at Kendrick Park.
But smaller acts, like making picnic tables avail- able in parks and other public places, were popular as well, he added. “As soon as we put out the tables, peo- ple were immediately using them. It was awesome.”
Forward Thinking
Looking to the future, Amherst is making decisions on four major capital projects slated for construction in 2022. On the drawing board are a new elementary school, a new library, a new Public Works facility, and a new fire station.
“We are trying to incorporate these projects into our ongoing budget so the taxpayer does not have to take on too much of a burden,” Bockelman said.
The desirability of Amherst as a place to live keeps housing prices high, which he calls a two-edged sword because it hurts the town’s ability to build a diverse socioeconomic community.
“People value diversity in Amherst,” he said. Still, he added, “it’s much more diverse than most people realize, especially our school district.”
To deepen that diverse profile, Amherst is look- ing to invest in property to develop more affordable housing. Bockelman pointed to a recently approved development on Northampton Road and a potential
which involves paying a lot of attention to science, and that’s what we did in the first place. We started inside people’s heads — we helped our people under- stand that this is real, and if people screw up, the whole office could shut down. But we never had to shut down — except for April and May, when every- one was shut down.
“Everyone understood this was their own job security at stake,” he continued. “Major workplaces have been shut down because of this. This is some- thing that hits close to home for each individual; at the end of the day, it’s all about their jobs and our business functioning, and people are responsible for doing their part.”
For just about every customer-facing business, there’s a balance to strike between commerce and safety. Because Excel isn’t just a gym, but a full ther- apy practice, Hulseberg doesn’t have to maintain a laser focus on gym membership. “Our gym, at its core, is a love note to our patients,” she said. “We tend to run our gym differently than the big chain conglomerates, so the limits have hurt us less.”
Specifically, during the past several months of 25% capacity, she sold memberships only up to that level.
“I don’t want people buying memberships and then finding it too occupied or they don’t feel safe,” she said, adding that she implemented a timed appointment platform online, but members can
also call last minute to check on availability. “It gives everyone peace of mind that we’re here for a massage or a group class, but everything has a cap on it, and we have safety requirements in mind.”
Winds of Change
In fact, even though the state has raised the capac- ity limit to 40%, Hulseberg is keeping it at 25% — for now.
“We’ve had a year’s experience with this,” she said. “We’re going to wait to implement any of their changes because they tend to roll back on us, and we end up spending time and money implementing new changes, just to have them roll back in a week or two.”
land purchase on Belchertown Road as additional projects in the works. “The town is willing to make the investment to develop and retain affordable- housing units in Amherst.”
To better address diversity in business, the cham- ber makes available an open-source document
for proprietors who want to identify their busi-
ness as being run by a woman, minority, or LGBTQ individual.
Pazmany said it’s simply good for business, not- ing that “we are getting steady requests from people who want to do business with various self-identifying businesses.”
One element in the town’s strategy emphasizes Amherst’s potential as a tourist destination. Sev-
eral national news articles have suggested that this decade may become a second “roaring 20s” with a renewed emphasis on cultural attractions. If that’s so, Pazmany pointed out, Amherst has plenty to offer, such as Museums10, a collaborative of 10 area muse- ums, of which seven are located in town. Together, the museums cover various aspects of history, art, lit- erature, and the natural world.
“In a normal year, Museums10 will bring more than a half-million people to the area,” she said. “The Emily Dickinson Poetry Festival itself is a global event.”
For the more immediate future, the plan is to have outdoor dining up and running by April 1. The BID was able to supply enough table umbrellas and
Besides, she said, she doesn’t want to be part of the problem that leads to a spike — although gyms and wellness practices, by and large, have not been identified as viral-spread locations. “We’re just happy we’re hanging on thus far and people are enthusiastic about what we’re doing, so we don’t have to close our doors.”
The worry that loosened restrictions can just as
“The one guarantee this year is that
whatever we’re dealing with today
”
easily be re-tightened is common to most businesses, Pazmany said.
“The one guarantee this year is that whatever we’re dealing with today will change tomorrow,” she said, and that reality has worn on business owners, especially those in Amherst and Hadley, who can’t seem to catch a break right now — and who con- tinue to remind customers that they’re still open for business.
“They are exhausted,” she added. “They’ve imple- mented safety protocols, they’ve kept everyone safe, they’re building confidence because they want every- one back. They’ve proven you can trust them, and trust is everything to a small business. So they were excited to expand to 40%. I can tell you, if this is pro- longed, it could mean more closures. They need to get to 40%.”
It’s a reminder that all these numbers — case counts, capacity limits, profit-and-loss statements — add up to something significant for a regional busi- ness community that’s just trying to get back to nor- mal ... or, whatever capacity level passes for normal these days. u
Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]
heaters during the summer to boost last year’s effort. Because there are so many barriers in place to ensure safe outdoor dining, the BID also paid 35 artists to turn the plain concrete into a medium to express themselves.
“The barriers became nice displays of public art, and they give downtown a bit of an art-walk feel,” Gould said.
Simple touches like the artwork and adding plant- ers around town generated positive comments from visitors and business owners alike. Pazmany appre- ciated the boost of confidence. “In this next phase, we just want our businesses to be up and running so they can take a paycheck and start to rehire people.”
Most Amherst leaders, in fact, look to the coming year with great anticipation. Bockelman noted that the town has several fundamental strengths, includ- ing the university and colleges. Pazmany added that UMass has already reported an increase in enroll- ment for the coming fall.
Gould admits that pushing forward on grants and other relief efforts helped Amherst through the worst of the pandemic. “Despite how hard everyone was hit, we’ve created a resiliency that kept our businesses here.”
Bockelman agreed. “Everyone’s efforts worked because they were sequential and were patiently done. We just kept moving forward.”
Epictetus would be proud. u
will change tomorrow.
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