BUTTE - The Butte Local Development Corporation (BLDC) is teaming with local business leaders to form an economic recovery committee for the Mining City.
“It’s an incredibly important role as things begin to reopen and we look at these phased reopenings and kind of the reboot of our local economy,” said BLDC Director Joe Willauer.
The committee is planning to launch a website this week that will give out small business loan information and other resources to help business owners get back on their feet.
The committee is planning for long-term recovery.
“We know that things are going to be different a month from now than they are right now, in a year from now than they are right now, and we want to be prepared for that,” said Willauer.
And another big challenge will be trying to get people back in the workplace who have been laid off during this stay-at-home order.
“There’s many more people unemployed than there was a month ago, and certainly more than a year ago. I mean, a year ago we were looking at historic lows for unemployment, and that's certainly not our situation now, and we’re really on the forefront of how we can work with all our businesses in this community to put people back to work,” said Willauer.