Coalition of business groups calls on governor to accelerate East End to Phase Four now

On the eve of the Long Island region entering into Phase Two of the New York Forward four-phase reopening plan, a coalition of East End chambers of commerce gathered in Riverhead today to ask the governor to recognize the “micro-economy” of the East End and accelerate the area’s progression into Phase Four.

East End businesses, including Riverhead Main Street anchor Long Island Aquarium, cannot afford to wait until July 8 to reopen, Riverhead Chamber of Commerce president Bob Kern said at a press conference outside the aquarium today. Many businesses, which have been shuttered since March and lost the big Memorial Day weekend, are “on the brink of financial ruin” and won’t survive if they lose the July Fourth holiday weekend too, Kern said.

Bryan DeLuca, executive director of the company that runs the aquarium, said it will take the popular attraction, which he said relies on ticket sales for 99% of its revenue, two years to recover from the COVID-19 shutdown — if it can recover at all, he said.

Though revenues evaporated in the shutdown, “the animals still need to be fed, the tanks still need to run,” so the aquarium has been piling up debt just to be able to function, DeLuca said.

“We’re on a respirator,” he said.

The aquarium has plans in place for online ticketing and touches entry, as well as visitor flow within the facility to ensure social distancing.

“We can control the number of people in the facility and we can control the flow of people through the facility,” DeLuca said.

Kern said the aquarium and other small businesses can operate more safely than the big box stores that have been crowded with shoppers while Main Street is paralyzed by the shutdown.

“Main Street businesses are suffering and we need to get them back open quickly,” Councilwoman Jodi Giglio said. “It’s time to reopen New York,” she said. “It’s time to get back to work.”

Eric Alexander, founder of Vision Long Island and Long Island Main Street Alliance, said the state’s shutdown and reopening plan was “rigged” against small businesses. He said a grassroots movement of local businesses and elected officials worked to convince the governor to ease restrictions on restaurants and could work to bring relief from the remaining restrictions as well.

Kern reiterated his statements in previous interviews that local business owners and local officials hit “a wall” when trying to communicate with the state and even the county about COVID-19 restrictions and the phased reopening plans.

“We don’t want to be critical,” he said, “we just want to the business community included in the decisions being made.”