The Jamestown City Council and the Jamestown Local Development Corporation are facing a serious problem.
There are more business owners looking to expand, add equipment or reinvest in their buildings than there is federal stimulus funding to go around. City officials are currently in the process of deciding how much, if any, to increase the ARPA property infrastructure development grant program for the building from the initially approved $500,000.
Rep. Jeff Russell, R-At Large, expressed concern that some applicants had already received various types of federal assistance during the disaster. That concern – a good one, by the way – has prompted Crystal Surdyk and city development officials to consider whether the business has received other funding from the city and prioritize those that have not previously received funding. City officials will also host discussions and visit specific businesses.
But in the interest of ensuring that city funding goes to projects that will be fruitful, it is also worth suggesting that city officials take the “last dollar” to provide funding similar to the position taken by New York state. in recent years. According to former governor Andrew Cuomo, the state money was approved only when all other funding was available – meaning that the state money was the funding to get the project to the end so that the work could begin.
City officials often work the same way, but it’s a good rule of thumb to keep stimulus money in mind.
More importantly, we know that there will be projects that should be funded that will not be funded by the federal stimulus program. An area struggling to attract investment like Jamestown should be proactive in finding ways to help businesses — whether that’s pushing existing programs or opening up new avenues of grant funding for new programs — so that as many of these projects as possible can take off. get some help.
Interest in the city’s small pool of Infrastructure Improvement Funds indicates that there is interest on the part of business owners to refinance their businesses. That’s a good problem to have — but it’s also a problem that won’t be solved entirely with federal dollars.
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