OLDS — The Town of Olds is considering making grants available to businesses deemed hardest hit by COVID-19 restrictions.
In addition, Mayor Mike Muzychka has called for an online town hall meeting to be held between town officials and representatives of those businesses. As of April 14, no date for that meeting had been set.
“I think that the restaurant industry and the local gyms have been most hardest hit now with an extended lockdown,” Muzychka said during an April 12 town council meeting.
“I’d like to float a couple of ideas with council to perhaps see if we couldn’t do a town hall noon meeting with restaurant owners over the next little bit.
“I have presented this morning a little bit with (chief administrative officer) Michael Merritt an idea for perhaps a grant program to help out some of these hardest hit industries.”
He thanked town staff for quickly helping restaurant and bar owners create or expand outdoor patios in order to stay in business now that indoor dining is prohibited again.
He also thanked Alberta Gaming and Liquor and Alberta Health Services officials “who have worked really, really hard to loosen some restrictions on patios to allow some of these restaurants to give some sort of sit-down service, albeit outdoors.”
Merritt expressed support for the idea but cautioned that it would have to be simple to administer and that details still needed to be worked out.
Several town councillors also reacted positively to the idea. It was suggested members of the Uptowne Olds Committee might want to participate in the meeting.
