Boardwalk Offers $2.7K Summer Bonus: Vaccine OK for Kids 12-15; SBA

COMMUNITY NEWS Boardwalk Offers $2.7K Summer Bonus

Vaccine OK for Kids 12-15; SBA Sends Out Restaurant Aid

By Jondi Gumz

Here’s a COVID-19 impact I never expected – the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk offering a $2,700 summer season bonus to fill jobs in rides, games and food service to open more of the seaside amusement park.

Workers can get a $300 a week bonus for up to nine weeks, which adds up to $2,700. The bonus matches the boost in jobless benefits recently extended by the federal government.

You’ll see plenty of “we’re hiring” notices on store windows or on Indeed. com: Bittersweet Bistro, Burger, Seascape Beach Resort, New Leaf Market, Ace Hardware, RiteAid, Safeway, Wells Fargo, Peet’s Coffee and Starbucks, all in Aptos, Wylder Space, the new food venue in Felton, McDonald’s in Scotts Valley, to name a few.

The Glass Jar, which owns The Penny Ice Creamery in Aptos, The Picnic Basket and Snap Taco, plans a job fair 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at 1108 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz.

With 15,953 recovered COVID-19 cases, only 91 active cases and 273,000 vaccinations, the pandemic outlook in Santa Cruz County is better than ever but businesses trying to meet customer demands can’t find employees, according to an April Bloomberg Businessweek report.

A March survey by the National Federation of Independent Business found 42 percent of small business surveyed couldn’t fill jobs, compared to a historic average of 22 percent.

The unemployment rate in Santa Cruz County in March was 8.1 percent compared with 7.4 percent a year ago, and that’s with 9,000 people taking themselves out of the workforce.

Moms are still at home overseeing schooling for their kids because most schools, including the Pajaro Valley Unified, are not offering in-school instruction full-time.

That extra $300 a week in jobless benefits until Sept. 6 approved by Congress and signed into law by President Biden as the American Rescue Plan keeps some at home.

“COVID Update” page 8

A poster at Bookshop Santa Cruz encourages people to get their COVID-19 vaccine. This poster is one of nine displayed in Santa Cruz County. They were created by Crush Covid Team members Amanda Altice, Caroline Bliss-Isberg, Peggy Burgess, Kathy Cytron, Jenny Evans, Emma Forbes, Karen Gallant, Dr. Susan Hughmanick, Marilyn Humphrey,Angela Marshall, Barbara Meyer, Chris Stacey, and Chris Tucker, with help from Ken Reichman, Ken Koenig, and the members of ARRT.