CHAMBER WELCOMES NORTH COUNTRY QUALIFYING FOR FIRST PHASE OF REOPENING

May 12, 2020 - The North Country Chamber of Commerce is welcoming the confirmation by Governor Andrew Cuomo that the North Country region has been found in compliance with all seven health-related criteria set by the state and may begin the first phase of business reopening as of May 15th, beginning with construction, manufacturing, retail with curb service, and agriculture, forestry and fishing.

“Thanks is owed to our region’s county health departments, our hospitals and health care providers, and to the Governor’s team for an amazing amount of coordination and collaboration in recent days to make certain the North Country would qualify,” states Garry Douglas, Chamber President and a member of the State’s Reopening Advisory Board. “Once we carry out phase one, we are hopeful that the other phases will kick in one at a time every few weeks, provided the region continues to meet the state performance criteria and all can continue safely.”

“We believe our area is ready to reopen safely and effectively, with our businesses having been kept well informed these last several weeks and with the Chamber already launching a major on-going program of webinars and guidance for employers to fully understand the new requirements for health and safety at their sites,” reports Douglas. “The Chamber has been the leading provider of workplace safety training services for more than 20 years, and we will be continuing to offer free weekly training sessions. Our baseline Back to Business webinars this week have already reached more than 800 area businesses, and we will now be doing many sector-specific webinars that will drill down deeper for particular types of businesses, starting with Construction, Manufacturing, Restaurants and Lodging sessions next week. We then intend to do several others.”

Each of the webinars will then be posted on the Chamber website at northcountrychamber.com for access for those unable to take part in the live programs or to have employees watch and learn.

According to Douglas, the Chamber is encouraging all businesses in the region to designate someone at their site as their Safety Resource Officer, responsible for taking all available training and creating a required health and safety plan for their operation. The North Country Chamber serves more than 4,200 businesses and organizations across Clinton, Franklin, Essex, Hamilton and northern Warren Counties and Akwesasne, and the Chamber encourages all to take advantage of the initial Back To Business program which is on their website and then one or more of the sector-specific programs which relate to their operation. They also point to their website as a place to find extensive information helpful to the reopening process including past webinars and tele-town-halls, links to various agencies and information sources, and special website sections such as a Virtual Job Fair for hiring, leads for finding PPE, assistance with health insurance questions and needs, and up-to-date guidance on available financing support. It also issues a daily e-newsletter called the Daily Dose Monday-Friday devoted to timely news and information related to the pandemic and what businesses need to know.

“There has perhaps never been a time when Chambers are more important to business, and we are continuing to maintain a full operation dedicated to the special assistance and support needed during this enormous challenge,” notes Douglas. “Our team has directly assisted hundreds of North Country businesses in a variety of ways to date and we will continue to do so as we now start to move through this phased reopening process.”