Lamont announces $5M grant program to help small businesses affected by flooding

TABIUS MCCOY / CT MIRROR Gov. Ned Lamont and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., looking at the aftermath of flooding in Oxford, Conn.

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By David Krechevsky

The state has set aside $5 million for a “micro-grant” program intended to help small businesses in western Connecticut affected by the recent flooding.

The program, announced Monday in Seymour by Gov. Ned Lamont and Daniel O’Keefe, commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD), offers grants of up to $25,000 for small businesses and nonprofit organizations in Fairfield, Litchfield and New Haven counties that have fewer than 100 employees and suffered flood damage.

The grants can be used to cover expenses that include those related to cleanup efforts, replenishing lost inventory and replacing equipment, they said.

The program will be administered on behalf of DECD by the Women’s Business Development Council (WBDC), a nonprofit based in Stamford that works to support business growth and job creation statewide.

On Sept. 3, the WBDC will launch an application process for businesses to seek the grants. Applicants will be required to provide detailed descriptions of how their businesses were affected and include photos, receipts, invoices and estimates, where applicable.

This state-funded grant program is separate from any potential federal funding that businesses or homeowners may be eligible to receive if the state is awarded a major disaster declaration by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) or the U.S. Small Business Administration.

The Lamont administration said it is working with towns, businesses and homeowners on detailed damage assessments and to calculate whether cost thresholds have been met that would enable the state to receive a major disaster declaration, which could provide federal funding to support rebuilding and repairing damage to eligible public and uninsured private property. The assessment process can take several weeks, the administration said.

Any homeowners or business owners with damage to their properties are urged to participate in the state’s documentation effort, either by filling out an online survey hosted by the state Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (click here) or by contacting their town’s local emergency management office to have their damages recorded.

Last week, President Joe Biden authorized a federal emergency declaration for Fairfield, Litchfield and New Haven counties in the wake of the storm-related flooding. That declaration enabled the state to coordinate with FEMA on deploying federal resources, such as personnel and equipment, that augment emergency actions the state and municipalities are taking to protect lives and property.

“This micro-grant program is an important first step on the road to recovery,” O’Keefe said, “providing critical gap funding to help our small businesses stabilize operations as best they can while they pursue more long-term support from the federal government or other sources.”