TESTIMONY
Justin Lerner, Executive Director of White Plains Road Business Improvement District, on Support from the Department of Small Business Services During and After COVID-19
1:14:10
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96 sec
Justin Lerner, Executive Director of the White Plains Road Business Improvement District, testifies about the support his organization received from the Department of Small Business Services during COVID-19 and ongoing grant negotiations.
- Lerner details how the Department provided masks, sanitizer, and crucial guidelines that helped keep storefronts open during the pandemic.
- He highlights the challenges of grant reimbursements due to budget constraints and discusses ongoing conversations with the Department about a possible new grant structure.
- Lerner mentions a prospective grant that would enable the hiring of a direct employee without incurring out-of-pocket expenses for his organization.
- He concludes by expressing hope for future cooperation with the Department on this initiative and others, reflecting a positive partnership thus far.
Justin Lerner
1:14:10
Hi.
1:14:10
My name is Justin Leonard from the White Plains Executive Director of the White Plains Group.
1:14:17
My experience with Small Business Services has been overall very positive.
1:14:23
They've helped us throughout COVID.
1:14:27
I don't know if it was an official grant or whatever, but they definitely provided a lot of the face masks and and Purell and Had a lot of guidelines help keep our storefronts open, so don't want that to go over-site it because they really did help us through through a very dark time.
1:14:44
In regards to the grants and and the funding that was being discussed.
1:14:50
I do agree that they they do have a lot of open grants that we can take advantage of, but I also do agree that somehow since our budget couldn't really afford for the, I guess, reimbursements, finding a different way of working on those grants, and I think that we they have been working on that.
1:15:14
And SBS might be looking to fund a grant for us where they would hire somebody directly where we wouldn't have to come out of pocket for that.
1:15:24
So I'm not sure the last time that's been updated, I think we spoke to them last year on that, but I think that they might be working on that.
1:15:34
So I hope that they are, and we look forward to working on that grant and finding that study with them.
1:15:46
I'm done.