Federal aid to help small businesses recover
Communities such as East Hartford, West Hartford and Simsbury put millions in grants and no-interest loans for those that suffered during pandemic
Helping small businesses and nonprofits survive as the pandemic recedes has become a major goal for communities ranging from West Hartford and East Hartford to Simsbury.
This fall, Connecticut communities are pumping millions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief aid into grants or no-interest loans for local operations that suffered during the pandemic.
For Geron Jackson, a $27,000 grant this summer made all the difference in maintaining his new Cream Time ice cream shop in East Hartford.
“It means a whole lot. Right now I’m in debt because I borrowed money to buy the building — this is going to get me back where I was,” Jackson said. “We were doing really well before, but I was laid off from my engineering company. So this (shop) is my main source of income now.”
Scores of small business owners across central Connecticut have similar stories.
All of the recipients lost revenue because of emergency shutdowns in March 2020, and in many cases the economic pain continues two and a half years later.
“It’s been one thing after another for some businesses: The pandemic, then the supply chain, then the workforce (shortages),” said Mayor Shari Cantor of West Hartford, whose town plans to distribute about $2 million in aid this year and next year.
“They went through closures, they get back on their feet and then it was the Delta variant; they got back on the feet and then it was Omicron,” she said. “And it’s happened to nonprofits, too.”
West Hartford last month got 134 applications for the first round of grants, which are worth up to $10,000 for local businesses and nonprofits that employ no more than 50 people. To be eligible, they must provide recent tax returns and other financial documentation along with information about how the pandemic harmed them.
Businesses from hair salons to restaurants and small manufacturers can apply, along with registered local nonprofits. Town Manager Rick Ledwith said about 100 applicants have been approved, and another 20 are submitting more paperwork. West Hartford will offer a second round of grants this fall.
Cantor sees it as a continuation of emergency intervention that municipalities undertook during the early stages of the pandemic.
“The pandemic was a global disaster. If the government had not stepped in to help, the catastrophe would have been worse, not only from the health standpoint but for livelihoods too,” Cantor said.
“Livelihoods are also important for physical health and mental health. We’re not helping people because they didn’t run their businesses well, they didn’t plan well. These were unforeseen challenges. so we’re providing some support for our valuable small businesses.”
Each community is tailoring the eligibility rules to its own needs. Last month, Simsbury set aside $150,000 of its federal pandemic relief aid to fund grants of up to $10,000 each. The money is targeted solely to local nonprofits that are addressing social or other community needs created by the pandemic.
In East Hartford, Mayor Mike Walsh’s administration came up with a program geared to small for-profit employers that have been struggling. It will use up to $4.4 million of the town’s federal American Rescue Plan funding; eligible businesses can get up to $125,000.
“When the federal government reached down to the communities around the country, there weren’t a lot of directions,” said Eileen Buckheit, the town’s development director. “So a whole bunch of communities came up with their own
plans to make the best use of the money.”
Walsh credited Gov. Ned Lamont for advising communities to view the funding as “once-in-a-lifetime money” that should be used to make a serious
difference.
“When I was elected last year, I went to Eileen to ask how do we make a difference. She said $1 million was not enough. The town council had set aside $1 million, so we went back to them
to put in an additional $3.4 million,” Walsh said.
“This is for companies adding jobs, coming to East Hartford, expanding in East Hartford,” he said during a visit to Cream Time. “Without this money, I don’t think this business would be here on Park Avenue but for his commitment and the town’s assistance.”
East Hartford has also approved $125,000 each for a local roof cleaning company, a bottling business and United Steel, a largescale metal fabricator that is adding a $500,000 machine to expand its service line.
“This is adding employees for United Steel and helping their ability to further stabilize with additional lines of business coming in,” Walsh said.
Communities directly helping local businesses
was once largely restricted to tax abatements, but the pandemic changed that, Walsh said.
“Being a mayor PRE-COVID was about cutting the lawns, plowing the roads, picking up the leaves, answering the phones. Forget that. While all of that is still important, it has taken a back seat to diversity, equity and inclusion, development and jobs.”
“So why are we creating pathways to put children in jobs? It’s about diversity, equity and inclusion. It’s about stable employment,” Walsh said. “It’s about getting access to health care for long lifespans, it’s about getting retirement benefits. If I can get those things in my community, I can stabilize it.”