SBA Disaster Assistance

If you run a small business and want to apply for one of the SBA's Small Business disaster loans, here is the link to the application. It is fairly quick to fill out, about 15 minutes or less, but expect to have to supply more documentation when the SBA contacts you about moving further with the application. The total you can apply for it up to $10,000 and much of it will be forgiven if used for payroll, rent and utilities. 

Covid-19 Reports

Two local reports of Covid-19, one in Williamson County and one in Jackson County The Jackson County case has self quarantined and is recovering. From what I have heard, it is an upper level administration at SIUC that tested positively for it but have not seen confirmation.

City Hall Closure

Hope the city reconsiders closing city hall and the civic center, at least the publicly accessible sections of it. As far as I know, the building houses the only publicly available lavatories in the downtown area. Given how concerned the country is now with hand washing and self care, keeping a location open where anyone who needs to can wash their hands sounds like a pretty good idea.

Of course, given the current situation, I imagine most businesses would not begrudge anyone who asks using their restroom facilities. However, since all of the restaurants in downtown have to close their dining facilities and most of the businesses in downtown are restaurants, that cuts down the number of restrooms dramatically.

City Hall Closed

The city announced yesterday afternoon that City Hall will remain closed to the public until March 31, except on Tuesday, Election Day, as the civic center is a polling place. Offices will remain open but only accessible by phone or email and bills can be paid via the city website, by mail or through the dropbox on the west side of the building. The city will waive late fees for bills due during this period as it realizes paying might prove difficult for some people.

I can see canceling events at the civic center and town square pavilion, due to the desire to minimize large groups of people but shuttering the entire building doesn't make much sense. After all, it isn't like large crowds of people wander the halls. Security pass codes keep anyone from the upper floors  so the only places readily accessible are the ballrooms and the revenue office.

All Illinois Schools Closing

Well that ramped up fast. Governor. Pritzker announced this afternoon that all Illinois schools, public and private, would close from March 17 through March 20 in the expectation that doing so will slow the spread of COVID-19. Couple that with all events cancelled that would draw more than 1000 people and you are going to have a lot of people at loose ends for the next couple of week.s

COVID-19

Apparently the concern about COVID-19 is really mushrooming. People are selling face masks on Amazon for $150+ for a packet of 50. Two weeks ago the same pack cost only $15 and, from what I understand, they do very little to protect you.

Flu Alerts

Google has a pretty nifty new tool out if you're concerned about the flu. Based on the assumption that people are more likely to search for information about the flu when they have it or feel they are at risk of it, the Flu Trends tool tracks by state the level of searches in Google using keywords such as " flu" or "flu remedies". According to Consumer Reports on Health, warnings on Google Flu Trends tool have beaten announcements by the Center for Disease Control by about two weeks.