League City declared ‘open for business,’ encourages shopping local with Summer of Fun Passport

League City officials held a ceremony June 17 to mark the city’s reopening for business and kick off a summer local business support program.

Main Street temporarily closed at 10:30 a.m. June 17 for a ribbon-cutting ceremony hosted by members of the League City Emergency Turnaround Taskforce, City Council and the League City Regional Chamber of Commerce, according to a city news release. The event is also meant to highlight the Summer of Fun Passport, a joint initiative from local business leaders to help League City retailers, restaurants and museums recover from the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

League City residents and visitors can spend June, July and August visiting landmarks, museums, parks, restaurants and retail shops to complete the 16 interactive activities, filling up their passport with stickers from each location to win prizes. No purchase is required, and all prizes have been donated. Participants are also entered into a drawing for the grand prize, which includes a weekend stay at South Shore Harbour Resort. For more details, visit www.leaguecity.com/passport.

Businesses will also be provided with the League City Workplace Protection Pledge on June 17. The pledge, which comes with a reopening toolkit of recommended safety practices, and was created by the taskforce as a way for businesses to demonstrate their commitment to protect their employees and customers through signage on display at their establishment.

In addition to providing businesses with the posters and yard signs, the task force also created The League City Promise, which is a list of goals to return to normal as the pandemic continues until a vaccine is developed. The task force also created a website dedicated to providing resources and information related to COVID-19, which can be found here.

The goal of the task force, the pledge and the promise is to avoid another economic shutdown that would devastate the community, Scott Livingston, the city's economic development director and a task force member, told Community Impact Newspaper. Local leaders want the city to be smart and proactive to allow residents businesses to coexist somewhat normally with COVID-19 until a vaccine is developed, Livingston said.