Local officials host COVID-19 Virtual Town Hall, address business concerns

SALINAS, Calif. (KION) https://livestream.com/accounts/25723746/events/8522569/videos/204178238 Monterey County and Salinas city officials hosted a COVID-19 Virtual Town Hall on Monday for community members in Salinas and North Monterey County to get information.

Speakers touched on public health responses and testing, impacts on services, compliance and enforcement of stay-at-home orders and help for small business owners in an event that used video conferencing technology to bring leaders and residents together online.

"We want to get voluntary compliance. However, we are going to be stepping up our enforcement," said Chief Adele Frese of the Salinas Police Department.

So far, Salinas police have handed out six citations and arrested three people for health and safety violations during the pandemic. For many Salinas businesses, the shelter-in-place order is more than just an inconvenience.

Restaurants like Taqueria Taquitos in Harden Ranch say they've lost more than half of their business so far, and they do not know how much more they can take.

"For a small business, it's really, really difficult to maintain the employees and definitely the rent is very expensive, so it's definitely going to be hard," said Sandra Pierce, the Taqueria Taquitos manager.

Local companies have the option of getting help through federal loans like the U.S. Small Business Administration's Economic Injury Disaster Loan Emergency Advance or the Paycheck Protection Program.

It is a first come, first serve deal, which means if all the money's gone then it is all gone.

But Salians Mayor Joe Gunter is hopeful to have everything back up and running in a month.

"If the numbers stay down, we're really hoping May 3rd becomes a very important day to our community," said Gunter. "We're looking at it very realistically working with the county, working with the health officer and working with our state and federal partners."

It is a timeframe business owners and workers can only hope becomes a reality, even as many expect it will take more time.

"Let's hope that everything goes back to normal in May, but it's going to take a little while for everything to go back to normal," said Pierce.

Some of the speakers who participated in the online town hall included Health Department Director Elsa Jimenez, Monterey County Health Officer Dr. Ed Moreno, Monterey County Undersheriff John Mineau, Department of Social Services Director Lori Medina and Salinas Mayor Joe Gunter.