Reading Chamber unveils rebuilding plan for Berks County

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The Greater Reading Chamber Alliance announced a “Rebuilding Berks” initiative to help county businesses prepare to reopen effectively when state orders permit.

“When the governor’s directive allows us to move out of red zone status, this information and these resources will be in place for businesses to use as they transition back,” said GRAC President and CEO Jim Gerlach.

GRAC officials have pushed for Gov. Tom Wolf to establish safety protocol models for all businesses and make it incumbent on the businesses to comply. The great majority of business owners, Gerlach said, would make sure all regulations were met.

“Look, business owners don’t want to risk the safety of their employees or their customers, and they don’t want to put their reputations at risk,” he said. “There’s every reason, if you’re going to be able to open up, to do it as safely and responsibly as you can.”

The plan, which was accomplished with input from GRAC’s nearly 1,000 members, key community business leaders and other community stakeholders, is laid out in three main sections. The first, “Financial Resources,” connects business owners with local, state and federal programs, that provide information about various financing options. It also includes information from and links to non-government financial institutions and funds.

The second section, “Workplace Readiness,” includes guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a list of resources where businesses can obtain personal protective equipment. Information is in English and Spanish.

It also contains specific readiness resources for the various business sectors, and enables business owners within the business, consumer and professional services; construction, hospitality, restaurant and retail; manufacturing; and nonprofit industries to register for 90-minute virtual peer group sessions focusing on economic recovery.

Those meetings, which will be held at various times Wednesday and Thursday, are intended to connect businesses and enable them to learn from one another.

“Many businesses are going to have to rethink how they do things and figure out new ways to survive,” Gerlach said. “We want to connect peer businesses so that information can be exchanged from a lessons-learned standpoint.”

Upcoming training sessions and webinars, open to both members and non-members, also are listed. Information and registration links for upcoming programs can be found here.

The third part of the “Rebuilding Berks” initiative, “County Data,” provides statistics and information regarding the number of businesses within Berks County and Pennsylvania that are considered essential and allowed to remain open.

Berks County has a 4.5 percent greater rate of closed businesses when compared to all businesses statewide. That, according to Gerlach, is mainly attributed to interruptions within the manufacturing industry, which experienced a 33 percent unemployment rate due to closings. Within the manufacturing sector, 10,795 jobs were lost.

Statewide, unemployment within the manufacturing sector is listed at just 12.5 percent.

Within Berks County, the trade, transportation and utilities industry; education and health services; and leisure and hospitality industries also have been hard hit, with 16.3, 11.4 and 11.8 percentage of job losses, respectively.

Other industry sectors also showed declines, but to a lesser degree.

Prior to businesses being closed due to COVID-19, Berks County had a total of just under 9,000 operating establishments. Gerlach said the GRCA expects that number to decline, as some businesses will not be able to open.

“We’re going to lose a significant number of small businesses across Pennsylvania,” he said.

Some businesses, he predicted, including restaurants, bars, tourism and hospitality, will be hit especially hard.

“These particular industries are being severely affected,” Gerlach said. “They’re going to be really challenged, and we’re going to need to help them.”

GRCA is reaching out to both member and non-member businesses to help them get back on their feet. “It’s just heart wrenching to see what’s happened to businesses that were doing so well before this virus hit,” Gerlach said.

GRCA representatives are working with the Berks County Commissions to formulate a financial assistance plan for area businesses. That plan is still in the development stages as the county waits to see how much federal money it will receive, explained Gerlach.

Berks County’s share of federal funding through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act will be allocated through the state.

The “Rebuilding Berks” plan can be accessed on GRCA’s website at https://greaterreading.org/rebuilding-berks.