Local leaders work on plan to reopen businesses safely

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MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- As business moves toward reopening, local leaders are working on a plan to do it safely.

The Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce has developed a website that can help businesses when they decide to open their doors.

“As employers start to come back online, I believe that they’re really interested in doing it safely and thoughtfully,” said Tim Sheehy from MMAC.

He points that out if businesses open the wrong way, it could hurt them in the long run. “If we are going to continue to move forward, we have to build consumer confidence and we have to build employee confidence,” said Sheehy.

“They realize that if they go back too fast, too hard, that they’ll do lasting damage to their business,” said Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.

The website offers a reopen checklist, health and safety best practices, and links to resources like places to find PPE.

It’s all done with help from medical professionals. “So that you know that the checklist and the items on there have been vetted by the professionals at the Medical College,” said Sheehy.

“We are in the process of making guidelines for reopening,” said Ann Christiansen, Health Director for the North Shore Health Department.

She represents health directors from 11 communities in the Milwaukee area. They all want to make sure businesses open the right way. “We certainly don’t want to turn that dial up too quickly, because we know that the impact that will have on the health care system will not be good,” said Christiansen.

Sheehy says even when businesses open back up again, the affects of this pandemic will be felt for a long time. “Some of this change is going to take a long time to recover, well into the fall, and some of it -- like I said -- nothing’s permanent, but some will be semi-permanent because we’ve learned to do things differently,” said Sheehy.

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