Blair County Chamber of Commerce Comment on Coronavirus Pandemic

As an organization in which 85 percent of its more than 1,000 members fall into the category of small business, the Blair County Chamber of Commerce is extremely aware of the gravity of the situation in which our businesses currently find themselves. I would encourage Governor Wolf to perhaps choose a different term in describing a certain segment of the business community. There truly are no “non-essential” businesses. While the health of our people is paramount, the health of our community and its economy ranks a very close second.

The chamber office will be open all this week so that businesses and individuals with questions and concerns can contact us, either by phone at (814) 943-8151 or by email at http://www.blairchamber.com. The chamber has also created a feature on our website at blairchamber.com called “News Alert” in which businesses can submit information about anything that it is helpful for other businesses or the Blair County community to know. There is information on the website on how to make those submissions. We will also be a resource for federal and state emergency loan program information.

We recognize that there is no shortage of information out there about the pandemic. We also know that some of it is intentionally misleading and not all of it is directed to business. The chamber’s recommendation to businesses is that you sign-on to a webinar that will take place tomorrow from 11:00 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. called “The Employer Response to the Coronavirus.” The webinar is being produced by the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business & Industry. We have sent the link by email to our Chamber members but want to make sure that any business or individual who would be interested in accessing the registration should go to pachamber.org.

The chamber thanks everyone who has already played a role in helping to make a challenging situation more manageable and we invite anyone, chamber member or non-member, to contact us if we can make a difference.