Health Department Order Mandates Protective Measures

The Pennsylvania Secretary of Health issued an order that mandates self storage operators and other essential businesses implement protective measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The order took effect on April 19.

Pennsylvania operators are strongly encouraged to read the full text of the order here. The order requires businesses that have maintained in-person operations to do the following, in addition to several other requirements:

Provide a mask to each employee and mandate that each employee wear a mask while on the work site. The employee may wear his or her own mask if meets Department of Health guidance.

1. Require customers to wear masks while within a building or defined area and turn away customers that refuse to do so, unless due to a medical condition.
2. Place signage throughout the site explaining the social distancing mandates.
3. Establish protocols to address the business’ response if it is discovered that the business has been exposed to a person with a probable or confirmed case of COVID-19. The order further explains several steps that the business must take in the event of an exposure.

Please email Joe Doherty with any questions. Please visit the SSA News page for the latest national news affecting the self storage industry, including the new federal leave law and the Paycheck Protection Program.

Pa. Governor Allows Storage Businesses to Remain Open During State of Emergency

By this time, you have probably heard of Governor Wolf’s order allowing only “life sustaining businesses” to remain open. Storage is specifically listed as a life-sustaining business on page 3 of this document accompanying the Governor’s order. Therefore, storage businesses are allowed, but not required to, remain open.

Businesses that remain open must follow the social distancing practices and other mitigation measures defined by the Centers for Disease Control to protect workers and patrons. You can find more information here.

Please email Joe Doherty with any questions.

 

COVID-19

The national SSA has many resources and webinars available focused on COVID-19 and our industry.  Click here to access news about COVID-19 and self storage.  Invitations to register for the webinars are being sent to state and national members, specifically, the primary contact's email address.

The self storage community was to have met this week in San Antonio for the 2020 SSA Spring Conference & Trade Show. Since our March 5^th announcement to change course, this cancellation has been overshadowed by the significant disruptions to our personal and professional lives, with many uncertainties remaining in the near and long-term.

COVID-19 developments are evolving rapidly and, in many cases, are unique to the respective localities and states of our members, or the federal government. Below are some updates regarding the Self Storage Association’s response, as well as links to current information on challenges affecting our sector.  Click HERE to read the complete letter and access more information. 

Congratulations to 2020 PASSA Manager of the Year

Stan Roof, Kwik Stor Self Storage

Excerpt taken from one of three nomination forms: 

"Stan is an incredible individual to work with. He has adapted from the "mom and pop" mentality of a manager where you need to give everything away to a customer to a modern day manager using all of the technology we have for the betterment of his customers and the facility. I will give you a prime example, when I 1st started working with Stan and we were talking about offering tenant insurance and he was like, they will never take it. The customer will walk out the door. Well we started and the store was averaging 80& policies but no real upgraded ones. We worked thru out the year and in the 4th quarter the new polices were averaging 93% of new rentals, but the upgraded policies were averaging 91%!!! Also, we implemented the Veritec program for value pricing and in the beginning same old story, would not work. But over time this program also had a major impact in the overall development of the store. This store has always been a highly occupied store, December 2018 they had 71,210 occupied square feet for 94.1%, December 2019 we were actually down 746 square feet for the year, HOWEVER we all know the name of the game is revenue, the effective rate after concessions GREW $3,391.00 per month. So lower occupied square forage (not by much) but higher rates are a win win for everyone!!! Plus, we have units to rent!!!! Stan has been at this store for 12 years and has developed an amazing relationship with the customers and community. Now he comes to work and is excited to see how many units he has to rent, how many rate increases he can send out. One comment he made was "Now that I understand the reports and the programs, it is easier for him to sell the product to his customers!

Stan is the proud Father of 3 and Grandfather of 5 and married to his best friend Cindy. He was a fire chief for 8 years and firefighter for 20, he is also an ordained minister, and president of the Baron Stiegel Lions Club for 2 years. Previously, he worked for Hershey Entertainment and Resorts for 15 years and is retired from Conestoga Valley School District, Stan is currently working for Murrell Court Partners (Kwik Stor Self Storage) for 12 years he has helped grow the business at this facility. He also runs two other facilities out of the Kwik Stor Office. We run the Ephrata Self Storage and the Susquehanna Valley Self Storage remotely from the Kwik Stor office. He also finds time for his favorite thing to do is spend time with my family, hunt, fish, and collect guns. Blessed each and every day to have such an amazing family, Stan loves the fact that he can go to work and actually enjoy doing what he does and love the owners and managers. Surround yourself with good people and good things will happen to you."

Join us March 8 & 9 for networking, education, visit the trade show and more!

Click HERE for the Event Program

Please call or email your state representative today and ask him or her to support House Bill 1756.  The bill is expected to be voted on by the House in December or January. PASSA members are urged to call or email the state representatives whose districts cover their homes and businesses and ask those representatives to support HB1756.

The Pennsylvania Self Storage Association supports HB1756, which is a continuation in PASSA’s efforts to modernize the self storage lien law. Following negotiations with members of the House Commerce Committee, HB1756:  reduces the number of lien sale advertisements that must be published in a newspaper; establishes a late fee safe harbor of $20 or 20% of rent, whichever is greater; allows operators to deny access when the tenant is in default for at least 10 days (down from the current 20 days); and expressly authorizes online lien sales.

Questions? Contact Joe Doherty, SSA SVP Chief Legal & Legislative Officer 703.575.8000x123 or email jdoherty@selfstorage.org

The Fall Conference program is available for the upcoming 2019 PASSA Fall Conference October 8 & 9, in Manheim, PA.

Click Here to view all auction items.  What are you taking home?

Click Here to View the PASSA 2019 Program

Click Here to View the Round Table Topics

Register Today - Bring a Colleague and Competitor - Non-members Welcome 

Click Here to Print the Onsite Registration Form.  Bring the form with credit card to the event registration desk. 

PA Self Storage Association (PASSA) Hall of Fame Nominee Submission Rules

The PASSA would like to recognize some of the Pennsylvania Self Storage Owners/ Operators/ Vendors/ Managers that have gone above and beyond and helped shape our industry in Pennsylvania. 

Nominees should be pioneers, innovators, respected entrepreneurs, great leaders, or hard workers willing to help anyone to improve the self storage industry.  If you know someone who fits this description, please nominate them today!!

The award will be presented to the winner at the Fall Conference on October 9, 2019.

Things to Know:

1. Nominee must have entered the storage industry at least 10 years ago.

2. Nominee must have distinguished himself/herself through proven record of accomplishment.

3. Nominees are expected to have demonstrated high moral standards, impeccable integrity and strong business ethics.

4. Nominees must have been PASSA members, directly or through their organization. 

Next Steps:

Deadline is August 22, 2019 5:00 pm EST

1. Please click here to complete the nomination form online. 

2. Scan the QR code to access the nomination form.

Existing PASSA Hall of Fame Members include:

• Louis Gilmore
• Theresa Maciejewski
• Patricia Watson
• John Gilliland
• Jim Delsordo, Sr.

SSA Webinar Series

FREE to PASSA Members - Password Sent to Your Email

Topic: Revenue Management

Presenter: Jim Ross, Self Storage Domination

When: Tuesday, August 6, 2019 11 am EST