WESTFIELD – After the COVID-19 pandemic shut down or limited many small businesses, the Greater Westfield Chamber of Commerce and its members are preparing for the vaccine’s rollout and warmer weather this spring.

Dino Gravanis, the chamber’s president, said that he does not expect the current phase of the vaccine rollout to impact businesses much.

“Right now, it won’t have much of an impact, we’re still in Phase 1 so until we get the general public access to the vaccine, I don’t think we’ll see as much positive impact, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction,” he said.

Along with the vaccine starting to roll out, Gravanis said members are happy about the state is distributing loans and grants so they can open their businesses again in the spring.

“We’re seeing our local governments and specifically the state giving more grants to small businesses and focusing on getting businesses reopened. There’s a big push on getting schools reopened and I think we’ll start seeing some of our businesses and trades as well,” he said.

Gravanis said that the chamber’s members are also looking forward to warmer weather for outdoor dining and more traffic outside.

“I’m hopeful, I think as the weather begins to change and warmer conditions return, we’ll see some of the benefits we saw this past summer. The optimistic feeling is we saw a lot of traffic in the first part of fall when the weather was very nice, including outdoor dining,” he said.

With warmer weather and better days ahead, Gravanis said the chamber resumed its search for a new executive director after Kate Phelon retired from the position in September.

“We’ve resurrected our search for an executive director, we’re looking to get that person hired and in place before the spring,” he said.

Due to some financial uncertainty, Gravanis said the search for an executive director was put on hold.

“From a financial standpoint, we needed to make sure we were financially sound. We weren’t quite sure what to expect in terms of membership, we’re very thankful most of the members stayed, we had very few nonrenewals, and we’re starting to see an increase in new members,” he said.

Gravanis added that everyone in the chamber is excited for warmer days and the vaccine’s continued rollout.

“Everyone is just more optimistic in getting the general population back out and getting back to a routine. I think we all got cabin fever this past year and we’re all excited to get back outside. I think there is more of a level of comfort out there knowing that people are starting to get vaccinated,” he said.