Governor Tim Walz,
On behalf of the Owatonna Area Chamber of Commerce & Tourism, we’re writing to ask you to ‘End the Pause’. 
The small businesses in Owatonna and across the state of Minnesota have been hardest hit by the closures happening due to the pandemic.  Bars, restaurants, fitness centers and entertainment facilities directly and many others indirectly because they have no customers. 

We are urging you to allow those businesses to open up and save their livelihoods.  As you know, closing indoor dining has had a dramatic negative impact on many of our favorite bars and restaurants and all but halted any business for event facilities, and fitness centers.  The state relief dollars are helpful, but for many it doesn’t come close to the losses they’ve endured over the last several weeks of 2020.

In a recent poll of our local restaurants, 62% of them state that carry out/take out made almost no impact to their bottom line when faced with the decrease in business.  Things are different than in the spring when the closures were new and people were motivated to spend on take out.   

We understand balancing public health and the economy has been a challenging proposition.  We encourage you to continue to use education as a tool and allow people to make individual decisions. We believe our businesses have been, and will continue, to create safe environments for their customers.  The timing is imperative right now to save these businesses-if you wait much longer, they will lose their ability to keep operating in our community.

End the Pause.

Sincerely,
 
Brad Meier                                                                                         Kelly Boomgarden, OACCT Board Chair
President/CEO                                                                                  GM, Country Inn & Suites Owatonna