Small-business owners get help to connect to sewers

Suffolk County executive Steve Bellone on Wednesday signed legislation creating a $1 million pilot grant program to help pay part of the cost for small-business owners who want to connect to county sewers, including the new Forge River Sewer District wastewater treatment plan.
“It has to be subsidized,” Bellone said at the bill signing, held at Mama Lisa restaurant in Mastic. “They can’t afford to do it on their own.”
Bellone was joined by community leaders and local officials, including county legislators James Mazzarella (District 3), who sponsored the legislation, and Bridget Fleming (District 2), who co-sponsored the bill.
The legislation had bipartisan support, passing by a vote of 17-0.

Qualifying businesses of 25 employees or fewer will be able to apply for a grant of up to $15,000 to defray part of the connection cost. That includes qualifying small-business owners in Mastic and Shirley located in the Forge River Watershed Sewer District, which includes the Montauk Highway commercial corridor.

The federal government is paying for the $224 million Forge River Watershed Sewer District program, but is not covering the cost for business owners to connect to the system.
The $1 million will fund approximately 65 grants. The funding will come from the county’s Water Quality Protection and Restoration Program Fund, which is funded by a one-quarter percent sales tax.

Businesses are expected to be able to apply for the grants this fall.

In addition, Dime Community Bank will offer low-interest loans to business owners to finance the balance of the cost, which depending on location, could be as much as $25,000, deputy county executive Peter Scully said.
The county will assess the need for finding additional funding for the program, Bellone’s office said in a press release.
The new sewer system is intended to help the environment by replacing aging septic systems and cesspools, a source of nitrogen runoff into the Forge River and Great South Bay.

The initiative will also benefit small-business owners by making their properties more valuable and able to be applied for a wider variety of uses, said Mazzarella, who called small businesses “the thread of our community.”

Mazzarella said he  hopes the program will spur the opening of more family-style restaurants along Montauk Highway, giving families more dining options.

The program is “a partnership with our businesses,” he said. “That’s what it’s all about.”