During Small Business Month, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone today signed legislation authorizing a pilot program to provide financial assistance to small business owners in an effort to make it more affordable to connect to County sewer systems. The program will provide grants of up the $15,000 to qualifying owners of small business properties, and the County will work with Dime Bank to provide access to low interest loans to finance the remainder of the cost of connection over time, to minimize the out of pocket to property owners. 

“Just as we have worked to make the replacement of outdated septic systems and cesspools with the latest technologies affordable to homeowners, we need to ensure it is affordable for our small business owners who are still recovering from the pandemic to be able to hook up to local sewer systems,” said County Executive Bellone. “Not only will this pilot program cover at least half of the cost of hookup, but it also affords business owners with competitive interest rates to finance the rest.”  

The pilot program complements the County’s ongoing efforts to replace outdated septic systems and cesspools with sewers. While the County continues its sewer expansion, commercial and business properties are responsible for the costs to connect to County sewer collection facilities at a time when the economy is still recovering from the financial effects of the COVID 19 pandemic.  

The pilot program, which will allocate $1 million for grants from the County’s the Water Quality Protection and Restoration Program Fund, is expected to begin accepting applications in the Fall of 2023 and is expecting to assist around 65 small business owners with 25 for fewer employees.  

The initial $1 million will allow the County to gauge the need for additional funding, identify other potential funding sources, and evaluate what other factors may be relevant in determining how best to allocate future funding for the connection of commercial and business properties.  

Frank Montanez Jr., President, The Chamber of Commerce of The Mastics & Shirley said: "We are happy to hear that Resolution 346-2023 is being signed and moving forward. As a Chamber of Commerce, our main goal is to advocate for all of our small businesses in the community and this pilot program is a huge step forward in helping out our local businesses obtain some sort of financial assistance for the hookups to the coming sewer project. These are difficult times for many of our small businesses, with high inflation, higher product costs, difficulty in finding and maintaining employees and any help to offset these costs of doing business is welcome. We look forward to this financial help and to the finalization of the sewer project to bring much needed economic development to our area."

Kevin O’Connor, CEO, Dime, said: Dime Community Bank is pleased to partner with Suffolk County to support this innovative program to help mitigate the cost of sewer connections for small businesses and improve water quality.” 

Construction of the historic $224 million Forge River Watershed Sewer District project is underway, but federal grant funds do not cover the cost of connecting individual business properties to the sewer district, making it a cost borne by the business owners. 

The pilot program will assist small business owners on the Mastic Shirley Peninsula while construction progresses and following the County’s recent commitment of $28 million to expand of the Forge River Sewer project currently under construction.