Tolleson officials assist businesses through COVID-19

Tolleson, Ariz. — Mayor Anna Tovar is concerned for the city’s small businesses and is working with city officials to provide resources for all business owners.

According to a press release, on March 17, Mayor Tovar declared a local emergency to address COVID-19. The release included the closing of many establishments and city departments.

However, food establishments were able to operate as long as they used “delivery service, window service, drive-through service, or drive-up service, and to use precautions in doing so to mitigate the potential transmission of COVID-19,” according to the release.

City officials have diligently worked with the state and the federal government in regard to different programming and federal programs like forgivable loans for businesses to make payroll, pay rent, and utilities Tovar said.

“We’ve proactively reached out to every single small business asking them to take a survey of what their greatest needs are and how we can help,” Tovar said. Tovar said much of it was to offer resources for businesses to decide if they would apply to any of the programs previously mentioned.

The city is also buying food for their employees like police officers, fire department staff, and public works. “Our commitment is to buy food locally from our restaurants here that are operating to help them out as well,” Tovar said.

As for other local businesses around the area, they have been severely impacted by Mayor Tovar’s declaration, but have received assistance through the city.

Jazzmon Hatcher, a Tolleson resident and business owner has had to recently put her sales on hold due to the virus. Hatcher opened her business this year and creates “Stop Bullying” t-shirts to raise awareness around her community. She operates her business in a stand at the central plaza.

However, due to the crisis, she has put her business on hold until the state of emergency is lifted. Unlike other business owners, she was not worried about paying her rent. “We were prepared and had extra money put away just in case we didn’t make sales,” Hatcher said.

Hatcher said the city’s Economic Development Director, Jason Earp did reach out to her and assisted her business by waiving the kiosk rent for the month of March and April.

The hardest decision for Hatcher has been to decide whether she should continue to produce and sell her products or wait for testing to be expanded or even a vaccine for COVID-19.

“I’m ready to get back to work so that I can continue to raise awareness. Especially in the city that I live in and with my son attending one of the local schools here.”

Despite the warnings that the COVID-19 pandemic could continue for many more months, Hatcher is hopeful that this will end soon and plans to return to her kiosk in the central plaza.

Mayor Tovar said she is not concerned about the city’s financial well being. She mentions how the city has resiliently gone through a recession and how they were one of the few cities in the state that had finances in order.

“Since my executive order we have many people working from home as possible and those who do come in are practicing social distancing,” Tovar said. “We wanted to assure our employees that they had a job and they were going to continue to get paid doing that job, whether it be in there office or at home.”

However, the city has planned ahead in case of a “rainy day”. Tovar said she and her colleagues have planned “proactively” for the past three years to have money saved in case of a “catastrophe”. The city has reserves in it to make sure it is steady enough for at least a year.

“We’ve made sure to prepare financially that we are stable so we can weather the storm for our city,” Tovar said.

The state mandates that every city has reserves of at least three months minimum so a city could “survive” Tovar said. This would include having the city’s run day to day operations and being able to pay all employees.

“I’m proud to say here in the City of Tolleson we have over a year of reserves so that means if we weren’t to see another single penny in tax revenues or money coming into the city we can physically maintain ourselves,” Tovar said.

According to Tovar Tolleson was the third city in Arizona to declare a city emergency. “It was a matter of safety and health,” Tovar said. “And keeping our residents informed.”

However, there are businesses that are still suffering and will continue to suffer, but her main priority is the safety and health of the people who reside and work in the city Tovar said.

“We will bounce back,” Tovar said. “Businesses will bounce back. We are a resilient community and we always make sure that we are taking care of our community whether it is residents or businesses.”