WATERTOWN, N.Y. (WWNY) - We know the COVID-19 outbreak and the restrictions that go along with it are very tough on small businesses. There is help to report and there could be more to come.
Dance classes at Rhonda's Footeworks in Public Square are still going with students on the other side of a screen.
"We're a business that doesn't have to say we're closed. We're virtually open," said Rhonda Foote, owner of Rhonda's Footeworks.
It's just one way a Watertown small business is adjusting to life after the COVID-19 outbreak.
Avon Shoes has been in business going on 100 years.
"We kept the overhead to a minimum," he said.
Martini says this time around, the company is taking further measures to keep customers in store at a minimum.
"We have implemented partial appointments with people," he said.
Neither of these two companies have a loan with the Watertown Local Development Corporation. But for businesses that do, CEO Don Rutherford says the WLDC board has approved relief measures.
"A two month loan deferment starting in May, and running through June," he said.
Rutherford says it could cost the WLDC around $140,000.
Leaders at Watertown's Small Business Development Center had a conference call with the Small Business Association in Washington Wednesday.
While officials couldn’t comment on what help could possibly be on the way, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik wants a bill from Washington that will have more unemployment assistance, loans, and tax credits for small businesses hit hard by the COVID-19 outbreak.
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