Over the last month, City of Edgewater staff and members of Edgewater City Council have been discussing how to best assist Edgewater businesses and residents. City staff have been holding weekly calls with businesses in Edgewater over the last month to listen to concerns and respond. To help businesses through this tough time, sign codes have been lifted, so businesses can hang banners and put up sandwich boards to advertise takeout options.
At Council meetings on April 7 and April 13, plans to offer financial assistance to Edgewater businesses and residents were discussed. The Edgewater Business Relief Grant Program was first discussed at a Work Session on April 7 and the Residential Assistance Program was discussed at a Work Session on April 13. The Edgewater Business Relief Grant Program was passed at the April 13 Council meeting and the Residential Assistance Program will be up for a final vote at the City Council meeting on Tuesday, April 21. Funding for both of these programs will come from General Fund reserves.
Specifics on the Residential Assistance Program are still being discussed and determined, but here are the basics from the Council meeting on April 13:
- Edgewater Business Relief Grant Program: $2,500-$5,000 grant for qualifying businesses who’ve lost 50% or more of their monthly sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic
- Residential Assistance Program: $300 grant to qualifying households who have lost 45% or more of their income due to the COVID-19 pandemic
It’s important for Edgewater businesses and residents to give their feedback to Edgewater City Council by email, phone and public comment at the next City Council meeting on April 21 (see contact list below for Edgewater City Councilors). It will take wise and thoughtful actions by the City of Edgewater and our community to bounce back from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thoughts on Business Relief Program
Over the last few years I have had the privilege of connecting with Edgewater business owners through various iterations of Edgewater business groups from Business on the Edge to the Edgewater Business Association. I have chatted with business owners as they launch their business in Edgewater and tell me about what led them to our community. Every chance I get, I choose to shop and utilize local business offerings and services right here in our community. This is why I firmly believe that the Business Relief Program is essential for our community to bounce back from this pandemic.
A majority of the income that sustains the City of Edgewater comes from sales tax from our Edgewater businesses. Homeowners don’t have to pay property tax to the City of Edgewater. The newly paved streets, the beautiful Edgewater Civic Center and many of the City amenities are all funded due to our successful small businesses.
And these small businesses are struggling right now.
Once busy 25th Avenue, Edgewater Public Market and business parking lots along Sheridan are now ghost towns. Every person who has opened their own business knows the risks that come with small business ownership. It takes loans for equipment and renovations just to open. With drastic reductions in sales over the last month, business owners are faced with a mountain of invoices, loan payments and payroll obligations beyond just the lease for their space.
A City grant of $2,500 to $5,000 this month won’t keep employees on payroll or pay a lease, but it is a welcome support from a city that is funded by the hard work of small businesses.
As community members, we have a role to play now in supporting local businesses and in the next few months as they hopefully open back up slowly. Click here to see our full list of ways to support businesses now or mask up, join the Tour de Edgewater and order takeout from Edgewater restaurants and breweries.
Thoughts on Residential Assistance Program
Although I use #EdgewaterTogether on social media as an aspirational statement of how we can respond to this crisis, we have to admit that we aren’t all together in how this pandemic is affecting us. We all are under the same stay at home order and have a hard time finding what we need at the grocery store, but some in our community are impacting far more by this crisis. Community members have lost their income entirely and are still waiting on unemployment checks to come. Others without health insurance have essential jobs and leave the house each day fearing that they will get COVID-19. Seniors are staying at home and wonder how they can get their groceries when all the delivery services are full. Thankfully, stimulus funds from the federal government should be arriving this week, but there are taxpayers here in Edgewater that won’t see a stimulus check.
In my opinion there is one group of community members who should be prioritized in the Edgewater Residential Assistance Program and that is renters. For those of us that own our homes, there are mortgage relief options. But we are already hearing reports of landlords that are moving forward with eviction notices because community members can’t pay their rent. Based on the latest numbers, over 55% of Edgewater residents are renters. Some will argue that it is not the role of the City of Edgewater to assist residents, especially renters. If not the City of Edgewater, who else will help renters? Early on in the pandemic, a Family Engagement Liaison at one of our local schools reached out to our organization, Edgewater Collective, to see if we could help with rent for a family. But with average rents in Edgewater above $1,200, we did not have enough funding to offer rental assistance and it pained me to say no.
We have to be honest too about how racial inequity in homeownership plays into this current reality. Since the expansion of homeownership in Edgewater over the last 100 years, there have been multiple barriers to homeownership for community members of color. It is plausible based on national data trends that a high majority of homeowners in Edgewater are white and a majority of renters in Edgewater are our Latino neighbors. So I believe we have a moral responsibility to be honest about how race impacts these decisions and be honest about how our neighbors that live in Edgewater rental units just north of 26th Avenue are struggling more than Edgewater homeowners.
It’s time for Edgewater City Council to prioritize renters with the Residential Assistance Program.
What You Can Do
- Contact an Edgewater City Councilor and give your feedback and ideas on these programs (see contact info below)
- Attend the City Council meeting virtually on Tuesday, April 21. We’ll post details on the meeting when they are released.
If your income hasn’t been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and you are receiving a stimulus check, here are some ways you can use those funds to support the community:
- Support Edgewater businesses
- Mask up, join the Tour de Edgewater and support local restaurants and breweries
- Help provide a dinner meal for those community members impacted most by this pandemic
- Help support local teachers through this tough time
- Help provide important supplies for frontline workers like local police departments
Edgewater City Council Contact Info
Laura Keegan, Mayor
303-232-0745
lkeegan@edgewaterco.com
Steve Conklin, Mayor Pro-Tem
303-202-1505
sconklin@edgewaterco.com
John Beltrone
720-634-6077
jbeltrone@edgewaterco.com
Casey Earp
303-378-9237
cearp@edgewaterco.com
Cory Reid-Vanas
720-252-0345
creid-vanas@edgewaterco.com
Michal Rosenoer
828-577-3541
mrosenoer@edgewaterco.com
Caleb Rountree
501-650-2747
crountree@edgewaterco.com
Janet Spangenberg
303-954-8649
jspangenberg@edgewaterco.com
Joel has been a resident of Edgewater, Colorado with his family since 2012. He is the Executive Director of local education nonprofit Edgewater Collective and Editor of the Edgewater Echo.
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