Volume 21 l May 2021
 
Weekly eConnection
801 West Bay Drive, Suite 602 Largo, FL 33770
Tel: 727-584-2321 Fax: 727-586-3112
Community Edition
B2B Happy Hour & Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony!
We had our B2B Happy Hour & Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony at The Haus Coffee Shop IRB, last week. What a great event! Thank you to Rhonda Bartz for hosting and thank you to everyone for coming out to celebrate with us!
Thank you to Advanced Video Systems for the photos & video: The Haus Coffee Video
Back to Business - Live!
The Central Pinellas Chamber was among a group of business and community supporters of Pinellas Technical College (PTC) that attended a School Advisory Committee meeting last week. The Chamber is partnering with PTC on a program called ChamberWORKS. It seeks to align businesses with job training schools/agencies to support regional workforce needs. 
If you’d like to be a part of this initiative, contact Tom at the Chamber, Tom@CentralChamber.biz or 727-584-2321.
A community honor
Chamber President Tom Morrissette was the recipient of the Rotary Club of Pinellas Park’s First Annual 2021 Hero Awards. The ceremony took place last week. Tom was recognized for “Promoting Education and Economic Development.” He was nominated by Jake Prokop, director of Pinellas Technical College-Clearwater. Several others were also recognized at the luncheon program including Chamber member Darla Otey of Girls, Inc. Tom said the award was humbling and he thanked Jake and Pinellas Park Rotary Club for the recognition.
Memorial Day Holiday

The Chamber office will be closed Monday, May 31.

“No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation.”
General Douglas MacArthur
Reserve your ticket: here
Tampa Bay COVID Update!  May 24, 2021
The COVID-19 Regional Re-Opening Dashboard tracks the critical and official public health metrics that guide Tampa Bay residents and policymakers to safely re-open our economy. It’s produced by the Tampa Bay Partnership.
Case growth rates in Tampa Bay decreased this week, to 632 per day over the 14-day period ending May 23, versus the 789 reported last week. At 4.69%, Tampa Bay's positive testing rate over the past week remains below the 10% threshold outlined in state guidelines and decreased from last week’s rate of 5.21%, constituting a low rate of transmission per CDC guidelines. Statewide, the positive testing rate was also below the 10% threshold and fell from 4.50% to 4.07%. The 7-day rolling average of Tampa Bay patients hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19 decreased by 18.5% in the past week and, as of Sunday, 449 such patients were hospitalized. To date, 1,719,814 Tampa Bay residents – an estimated 39.9% of the region’s 4.3 million residents aged 12 and over – have completed their COVID-19 vaccine sequence.
Florida consumers will save on hurricane and school supplies as well as concert tickets and outdoor gear under a $200 million bill signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday.
The panther's historic territory used to be the entire Southeast. But they were hunted so relentlessly that by the 1970s, only a handful were left in the swamps west of the Everglades.
State officials are weighing whether to end Florida’s participation in federal pandemic unemployment benefits amid reports that employers are finding it difficult to hire workers.
It’s not just computer upstarts and lemonade stands that need protection from local governments. Another rapidly growing home-based business model is one where people manufacture and sell items through online retail platforms such as Etsy.
Subtropical Storm Ana formed early Saturday morning, making it the first named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season. But it developed more than a week out from the official start date of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season.
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Central Pinellas BizReach E-Connection
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