MENDOCINO Co., 5/2/20 — As California nears six weeks of sheltering in place due to Covid-19, Gavin Newsom and public health officials have begun considering ways to loosen certain restrictions in order to support small business owners, many of whom have been closed or stretched to capacity by the economic conditions of the pandemic, as part of an “Economic Recovery and Reinvention Listening Tour.” This week, Newsom invited retail business owners, including Mendocino County’s Jim Mayfield, owner of Rainbow Ag, to participate in a live-streamed conversation covering their concerns and ideas for how to weather the novel coronavirus.
Mayfield, who has operated five stores in Mendocino, Sonoma, and Lake counties for nearly 40 years, shared his perspective with Newsom and his staff, as well as the challenges he’s faced trying to be proactive in protecting staff, their families, the business, customers, and the community at large. Rainbow Ag has been operated as an essential business since the start of the pandemic, and has implemented a number of safety and social distancing practices in order to ensure workers and employees stay healthy.
You can watch the conversation here in the video below. What do you think would be the most helpful thing for small businesses right now? Let us know in the comments or in an email [email protected].