We’d like to begin the update by sending a huge salute to a local Covington business.
Thank you to Donna Salyer’s Fabulous Furs for changing your business model and providing needed PPE for health care and emergency response workers. They made 3000 masks for St Elizabeth and just completed and donated another 500 masks for Covington Police Department and Fire Department. They manufactured over 9000 masks for local businesses and anticipate producing up to 50,000 over the next few weeks!
Kenton County Clerk Gabrielle Summe on Covid 19 and the elections at 2pm today
Kentucky rescheduled the 2020 statewide primary electron from its original date in May to June 23.
Join the Northern Kentucky Forum today, Thursday, April 9 at 2:00 PM to hear Kenton County Clerk Gabrielle Summe discuss questions related to the rescheduled 2020 statewide primary election.
https://nku.zoom.us/j/791693149
CBC Webinars and Update
City of Covington has taken several actions to help businesses during this challenging environment. Assistant City Manager Bruce Applegate and Economic Development Director Tom West answerd questions and provided additional information during the CBC webinar yesterday. Download and listen to the recorded webinar here. View the City COVID-19 response page at https://www.covingtonky.gov/government/covid-19.
Today, we heard from David Dalton, Principal of The Think Shop and Red Hot Promotions discuss communication strategies to remain connectd and visible during this period.
Next week on Tuesday, April 14, Kenton County Judge Executive Kris Knochelmann will discuss Kenton County’s reaction and response to COVID-19 and directly answer your questions. Details here. Thank you to HR Elements for partnering with us to offer these webinars.
NKY Restaurant Relief Fund
Many industries – and restaurants and bars in particular – are facing extremely tough times. Yesterday, the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, Northern Kentucky Tri-ED and Horizon Community Funds of Northern Kentucky partnered to provide local eateries the opportunity to enjoy some much needed relief – and they are looking for suggestions in deciding who to help.
The program works as follows:
Individuals purchase a $50 minimum gift card to any locally owned or operated Northern Kentucky restaurant or bar from today, April 8, through April 22.
An individual or business then uploads a copy of their receipt, address and contact information to the Restaurant Relief Fund website: NKYChamber.com/NKYRestaurantRelief
This automatically nominates the restaurant for one of ten $1,000 grants that will be awarded on April 16 and April 23.
The grant recipients will be chosen via a random drawing. Restaurants and bars will receive an entry for each receipt uploaded, and a selected restaurant/bar can only receive a grant once. Restaurants must be locally-owned and -operated to be eligible. Additional details are available in the press release.
Remember, gift certificates make excellent Easter basket items and are perfect gifts anytime for loved ones, teachers, and friends.
Nonprofit Membership Spotlight – Welcome House
Thank you to Danielle Amrine, Executive Director of Welcome House for sharing the following update:
In a joint effort with ESNKY, we opened the NKY Convention Center Shelter for 2 weeks to help flatten the curve. Now that the country is expecting the “surge” to happen in the next few weeks, we decided to move this group (42 individuals) to a hotel so they are able to shelter in place, and have access to their own bathroom, showers, and bed. We also wanted to free up the Convention Center in the event that the space was needed for hospital overflow etc like Cincinnati is doing.
We plan to shelter these individuals for 30 days, until May 4th. We will then reassess the situation. Welcome House is paying $12,500 per week to house these folks at the hotel. Welcome House, Lord’s Gym, and ESNKY are providing 24/7 staffing, including an onsite RN. Cornerstone Church and 1st Baptist are providing breakfast everyday, Fair Haven is providing lunch, and PeeWees Place is providing dinner. We are checking temperatures every four hours and have isolation procedures in place if someone does present with symptoms or a fever. No one so far has presented with any symptoms. Welcome House is providing onsite case management and access to community resources. Clients are only allowed to leave for work or required in-person appointments. Over half of the population we are housing right now are over 50 years of age and high risk for COVID-19.
Our biggest challenge is that we are getting inundated with calls for assistance. Hospitals are looking for places to discharge people that have COVID-19 symptoms. There are still people experiencing homelessness out in the community. Our Welcome House Street Outreach teams are going out into the community to provide care packages and education on how to keep themselves safe to those that are unsheltered. As a region we need are more long term solution for homeless population in the NKY region. With libraries and other businesses closed, these individuals don’t have access to restroom facilities or opportunities to wash hands.
All the organizations listed, including Welcome House, could all use financial assistance as we all have taken financial risks in supporting these amazing human beings that deserve the same opportunities to shelter in place as the rest of us. As a community, we are wrapping our arms around this and won’t let them fall through the cracks, but more assistance is needed.
Donations can be made online at https://www.welcomehouseky.org/donate.
The following is also a snapshot of current needs:
