By Adam Swift
The city council is continuing to look at ways to help small businesses in the downtown that were affected by the recent Broadway reconstruction project.
At last week’s meeting, District 7 Councilor Manuel Teshe requested an update on a motion he previously made to double the number of businesses that receive funding through the storefront improvement program to help at least ten businesses per year.
“We’ve had our fair share of listening sessions and heard how much they are struggling and how much they are losing currently,” said Teshe. “As I understand, there is money set aside for all the storefront grants that are coming in the future. I would like to see that we can move up the timeline a little bit so that more businesses are benefitting from this and hopefully we can help them survive.”
Teshe said there are a number of businesses in the downtown that are struggling to survive.
“I would also like to voice my support for our local businesses,” said District 1 Councilor Todd Taylor. “Normally, I don’t think it is the role of government to try to help subsidize businesses, but the problem here is specifically the downtown Broadway project that has really impacted these businesses. I think that it is incumbent upon the city to try to mitigate some of that damage a little bit.”
Taylor said he would like to see what can be done within reason to try to mitigate some of those problems that were caused by the city and not the fault of the businesses themselves.
“I’m certainly not in favor of any bailouts of any businesses, but any kind of assistance that is affordable and that we can do I think is appropriate,” said Taylor.
Teshe also noted that there have been a number of applications that have come in for grant assistance in conjunction with the city and the chamber of commerce, and that the recipients of those grants will be announced soon.