MIDDLETOWN, Conn. — Local businesses may be getting some much needed relief in the near future. The Lieutenant Governor holding a round table discussion today.
The pandemic— hitting local businesses and restaurants especially hard, the Governor’s office is now trying to find ways to help them avoid shutting down permanently.
“The state of Connecticut had $50 million to allocate through the Federal Cares Act to small businesses across Connecticut,” said Lieutenant Governor, Susan Bysiewicz. “We had over 18,000 businesses apply.”
Neil's Donuts in Middletown, opening a new location back in October, spared from closing down, as they are a takeout and drive-through operated donut shop, but their original Wallingford location, wasn’t as lucky.
“Our DECD and the Governor decided that we would provide an additional 35 million dollars in business grants. These will be in the amount of between 10,000 and 30,000 dollars,” said Bysiewicz. “The commissioner is still working on the criteria for those grants but we want people to know that they need to get ready to apply for those.”
“I have a drive through, so the drive through helps us a lot here in Middletown,” said Rob Bukowski, owner of Neil’s Donuts. “But, in Wallingford, it took a big hit for 6 months or so.”
Now with an uptick in cases, Bukowski says things have slowed down.
“As cases rise, it’s slowing down a little bit again, but we are trying to take all the precautions we can, and keep people social distancing, and have them wait outside, and everything we can,” said Bukowski. “We try to do everything we can, we try our best.”
And despite being able to remain open during the pandemic, Neil’s Donuts was recently forced to briefly shut down after an employee tested positive.
“Fortunately, it didn’t spread, it was just one isolated case but since everyone here works closely together, I decided to shut everything down,” said Bukowski. “Everyone’s health is more important than the money.”
But overall, staff members and customers say, while Neil’s hasn’t been nearly as impacted as other local businesses, this is help that the state desperately needs.
“Of course we are always focused on the budget, and the good news for us is that we have a record amount in our rainy day fund,”said Bysiewicz. “So, we are in a better position than most other states. Still, we need federal relief.”
“We need it definitely,” said Verna Killian, one of the donut finishers at Neil’s Donuts. “There’s a lot of businesses that I’m hearing are shutting down completely, they can’t get the income bc their clientele are dropping.”
“Well, if we don’t shop local now, local is not going to be around when you know, when we are all ready to go out,” said Samantha Merwin of Haddam as she stopped in for breakfast on Thursday. “I think that most of the local businesses around here, if not all, have been doing a lot of steps to keep us all safe, and social distanced, and you know to make sure that we are safe when we are purchasing things... there’s really no reason not to shop local.”
“We were fortunate,” said Bukowski. “But, I feel for all the businesses that weren’t able to carry on like normal and hopefully they get the help they need.”
“There is a new round of PPP and there has been a lot that has changed,” said Catherine Marx, U.S. Small Business Administration District Director for the Connecticut District Office. “For example, it is going to try to target smaller businesses, so the maximum number of employees you can have is 300, you will also have to now show a reduction in revenue.”