From left, Eric Hagglund, 4 Below Haggy’s Bar and Grill owner; Joe Town, Pace’s Pizzeria owne; and Patti Centi, Landmark Restaurant owner, discuss the need for financial assistance from the city via programs that will allocate American Rescue Plan Act funding. P-J photo by Dennis Phillips

The financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially during its first few months, is still being felt by restaurant owners.

Three Jamestown restaurant owners talked about the negative financial impacts of the pandemic with the Jamestown City Council during its work session meeting this week.

Joe Town, owner of Pace’s Pizzeria, said it was a challenge, especially at first, when the seating capacity for customers at his restaurant went from 100% before the pandemic to zero when the pandemic first started. It then went to 50% a few months after the start of the pandemic.

During the same time, Town said it was a challenge to read the “cryptic” information being released by state officials on what was allowed and wasn’t for restaurant owners. He said once the pandemic started he knew they were going to have to change how they did business — such as installing a take-out window to hand pizzas to people outside of the restaurant — to prevent closing the pizzeria. He added that city officials quickly changed local ordinances to allow for outdoor dining and parklets that helped small businesses.

“You all acted so quickly. It was nice,” he said. “It was very effective and it really helped us out.”

Town said city officials should act quickly again as they prepare to allocate $10 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to help Jamestown restaurants, retailers and manufacturers.

Eric Hagglund, owner of 4 Below Haggy’s Bar and Grill, said he lost $38,000 during the first few months of the pandemic. He noted that he has equipment that needs to be replaced or fixed, but can’t afford the costs. He said the city has lost restaurants like Gialy’s during the pandemic and the city cannot afford to lose any more.

Patti Centi, owner of Landmark Restaurant, said she too has had to make changes like adding a patio to stay in business. She said the expense of adding a patio is a challenge to her bottom line, but it’s something that had to be done to reinvest in the restaurant.

Following the discussion by the restaurant owners, Crystal Surdyk, city development director, presented phase two of the city’s draft economic development plan on how to spend ARPA funding. She presented 12 programs that will total $5.75 million. She added that four of the programs will help small businesses through workforce development, storefront improvements, new business development and establishing a small business incubator.

The programs will also help businesses revise what they are doing to attract more customers, funding to help contractors who assist city businesses, money for property acquisition to spur economic development and funds for citywide branding.

ARPA funding will also be used for the city’s Urban Development Action Grant fund, which is the Jamestown Local Development Corp.’s lending arm that provides loans to businesses. ARPA funding is also being proposed to go toward the Chadakoin River Strategic Business Plan to expand economic development opportunities around the river near the National Comedy Center.

City officials also propose spending $1 million toward funding for a programming and evens coordinator position and for downtown and waterfront programming. They also plan to fund $500,000 toward the ARPA economic development plan’s administration.

Surdyk provided city officials with the draft proposal of phase one of the ARPA economic development plan last week.

The phase one programs include $1.5 million for building/property infrastructure improvements; $1.5 million for new equipment and machine upgrades; $750,000 for internet technology improvements; and $500,000 for marketing and branding campaigns.

Surdyk said these programs total $4.25 million.