Businesses have shifted their day-to-day focus dramatically in accordance with COVID-19 guidelines, but the City of Kalona wanted to make sure their local businesses stay open past the current pandemic. As COVID-19-related business closures started to be announced, City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh felt the city council had to respond appropriately. Schlabaugh tells KCII News the idea the council came up with to support their local businesses, “The council felt strongly that they wanted to try to do a small part in helping facilitate shop local, buy local and provide some incentive. So we did utilize some Washington County Riverboat funds that are kind of outside that normal tax base that we normally draw our funds from. We did what’s called a $10 for $50 program. We’re about three weeks into it. So we’ve got about another 15 that came in last night. Those are from individuals that have taken the opportunity to spend $50 locally, it can be multiple receipts that day, it can be one receipt, it can be a gift card, at a grocery store, pizza carry out, any of that good stuff, and we’ll send them $10 in Kalona cash which they can then put back into the community and leverage that for their next purchase.” Schlabaugh says the program has been received very well in the community, and he hopes citizens will continue to shop locally in the future. Individuals can receive their $10 in Kalona cash by taking a picture of their receipt with $50 or more dollars spent, fill out the online form on the City of Kalona website, and allow 5-10 days for gift certificates to be received in the mail. Individuals with any issues with the form or uploading an image can contact Ryan Schlabaugh.