Easton business owners had the chance Friday to learn about Phase 2 of the city’s Business Recovery Program, aimed at enhancing retail sales during the holiday season.
The centerpiece is a proposed outdoor holiday shopping village for retailers and service-oriented businesses, according to Panto, who touted Phase 1 as a success in the fight to keep businesses open during the coronavirus pandemic. That effort focused on assisting local restaurants in adding outdoor seating, with road closures and concrete barriers set up to protect diners and staff from traffic.
For the retail village, the city would purchase and assemble huts for retailers to use, and provide a minimum amount of electricity so retailers may have an infrared space heater. Only Easton businesses could participate.
“This is solely for Easton businesses,” Panto said during a morning conference call. “The city won’t help other businesses from 50 miles away when our retailers need assistance.”
The plan isn’t finalized, according to Panto. First, the city needs to gauge how many businesses want to participate.
“As a person who owned a (retail) business for 28 years, I know these times have been extremely hard,” Panto said Friday, stressing that the city is trying to work with everyone. “It’s a lot to put together in the next few months, but we’re willing to do it.”
Kim Kmetz, manager of Easton’s Main Street Program through the Greater Easton Development Partnership, said a decision on the village is expected by this coming Friday, Oct. 2, and that the start date would be Nov. 13 if the initiative moves ahead.
“We hope that it’s an opportunity that the business owners support through the holiday season, because it’s going to be a very important season for them, having missed a few months of sales earlier in the year,” Kmetz told lehighvalleylive.com. “It’s more important than ever that people embrace shopping local and the safety of shopping local is really the message: Shopping small equals shopping safe.”
Easton Director of Community and Economic Development John Kingsley also took part in Friday’s call, and said business owners interested in participating would need a permit. The city is working to streamline the application process, but the main purpose is to get basic information like the types of activities businesses plan to undertake, any accommodations they’ll need and insurance information.
The goal is “meeting needs of retailers and providing the best quality of opportunity for customers to come into downtown and attract business,” Kingsley said.
City officials envision the holiday village for Fridays through Sundays in the 300 block of Northampton Street, and possibly the 200 block if there is enough interest.
Business owners on the call were mixed on the idea, with some doubting how much it could actually help their business. But for the most part, they’re appreciative of the mayor’s efforts to help their business.
“I’m very pleased all of you have worked so diligently … to assist the retailers,” Gallery on 4th owner Lisa Kovacs said during the meeting.
Panto strongly encouraged business owners who do not plan on participating to at least extend their hours on the village days to remain open during the event and encourage foot traffic in their business.
There is still a lot to do planning-wise, but Panto is confident it can be successful.
“We’re behind the eight-ball, I will admit that, but we can pull this off,” Panto said. “I know we can pull this off.”
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Julia Owens is a freelance contributor to lehighvalleylive.com. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Supervising reporter Kurt Bresswein contributed to this report. Reach him at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com.
The Link LonkSeptember 27, 2020 at 07:00PM
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Easton proposes outdoor shopping village to help retailers this holiday season - lehighvalleylive.com
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