GLOUCESTER, Virginia – Another round of financial aid could be on its way, and for local businesses, it is raising optimism with the latest two aid packages.

“There isn’t a single company that hasn’t changed their business model in some way,” said Jenny Crittenden, executive director of the Main Street Preservation Fund in Gloucester.

The Main Street Preservation Fund works with small businesses along the city’s Main Street. Crittenden said the last two relief packages have helped small businesses in Gloucester and said she is looking forward to the third.

The organization and local businesses came up with new ways to stay afloat, one of them being “Downtown Dollars” vouchers to businesses that offered discounts to customers.

“These PPP loans and EIDL [Economic Injury Disaster Loans] some took a little while to get here, ”she said. “It provided a great gap tool to use to keep running and stay afloat. “

The new plan is called the American Rescue Plan, and it is expected to provide $ 7.25 billion for the paycheck protection program and $ 25 billion for bars and restaurants.

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“Small business owners tend to really take care of their own,” Crittenden said. “It gave them the opportunity to do it.”

“If there is one thing that is clear,” said Bob McNab, professor of economics at Old Dominion University, “it is that economic health and public health are closely linked.”

McNab also pointed out that the money was going into people’s bank accounts. The plan provides for payments of $ 1,400 for single filers or $ 2,800 for couples if they earned less than $ 75,000 in 2019.

He says the hundreds of dollars should help spend in these businesses. Another thing, he says, that should help, are vaccines.

“If small businesses want traffic at the door,” McNab explained, “we need people to get vaccinated so that the population as a whole has gained immunity and is as safe from the virus as possible. “

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