Pace’s Pizza Owner Joe Town makes plea to Jamestown City Council to pass small business assistance programs

A group of Jamestown restaurant owners are urging Jamestown City Council to pass small business assistance programs.

Pace’s Pizza Owner Joe Town, Haggy’s 4-Below Owner Eric Haglund, and Landmark Restaurant owner Patti Centi spoke to Council ahead of a presentation by Director of Development Crystal Surdyk on additional small business grant initiatives. These are initiatives that would be funded using American Rescue Plan monies.

Joe Town said the City acted quickly to adjust ordinances for parklets and patio dining during the Pandemic in addition to getting CARES Act funding out the door, which helped a great deal, “We’re asking that you act quickly, again, for the second time and pass some of these Department of Development initiatives so that we can use some of these funds to address some of these issues that we weren’t able to address over the past two years cause those funds had to go other places. And we’ve seen it work. I can tell you that it works. Outdoor dining works, patios work, parklets work. And people are spending again as you can see from the sales tax coming in.”

Surdyk presented twelve economic development programs totaling $5.75 million dollars. Six of the programs specifically were aimed at small businesses including workforce development, storefront improvement, new business development, and establishing a small business incubator.

Other proposed projects included replenishing the Urban Development Action Grant program, providing additional funds for the Chadakoin River Basin activation project, and the hiring of a Downtown Programming Fund and Events Coordinator.

These projects are on top of $4.25 million in small business assistance programs presented to Council last week. Surdyk has requested Council submit feedback on proposed programs before they’re brought forward for a vote.

The Finance Committee did approve several other American Rescue Plan-funded projects including $180,000 for new playground equipment at Nordstrom Park as well as the construction of a handicapped accessible path to the playground; $30,000 to purchase ball field surface material to reconstruct six softball and baseball fields; $14,000 for new hand dryers in city park restrooms; and $30,000 for the purchase and installation of new signs for the City Parks system.

Council member at large Kim Ecklund said one resolution under new business from the Finance Committee is the hiring of an ARPA Reviewing Consulting Service through Venesky & Company out of Cicero, New York, that was highly recommended by the city’s auditors, “To do some oversight and consulting, making sure our ARPA funds are spent well and properly; as well as providing just general consulting. The maximum amount we’re going to put in is $7,000 for this service, but given all the questions and ever-changing rules with ARPA funding we thought that it was in the City’s best interest to move forward with that.”

So far, City Council has approved spending $3.1 million of the $28 million in ARPA funds. The City has until July 1, 2024 to designate the use of the funds with the funds needing to be fully expended by 2026.