Islip IDA continues fund distributions to local businesses for PPE

Roughly 22 small businesses and companies in Islip Town have been offered over $100,310 in financial assistance through the town’s Industrial Development Agency to help pay for personal protective equipment to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

At the Sept. 15 Board of Trustees meeting, town officials unanimously approved a resolution to award grants to various applicants of the IDA’s COVID-19 Disaster Loan/Grant Program.

At that meeting, supervisor Angie Carpenter said that $250,000 total will be offered to eligible for-profit and nonprofit businesses who have demonstrated a financial need for PPE as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. She noted that grant and loan funds are still available to businesses in need.

For a business to qualify for a $25,000-maximum loan or $10,000-maximum grant, it must meet certain criteria, according to the application.

To qualify, the business must be located in Islip Town and have no more than 50 and no fewer than three employees. Through an application, businesses must prove that they will commit to job retention, demonstrate a need caused by the emergency disaster, provide personal guarantees of all owners and use the grant proceeds exclusively for the purchase of PPE or installations to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Businesses must also have been operational for at least two years and were financially viable prior to the declaration of the emergency disaster in March 2020. Start-up businesses cannot apply.

Priority has been and will be given to businesses that: were not defined as an essential business and therefore were closed from March 7 to May 29 or beyond; are certified minority- or women-owned businesses; are a veteran-owned business; or are located in distressed communities, as defined in Article 18-A of town law.

According to Islip Town Code, these areas are ones that are “characterized by persistent and pervasive poverty, high unemployment, limited new job creation, dependence on public assistance income, dilapidated and abandoned industrial and commercial facilities, and shrinking tax base.”

Carpenter said town officials will continue outreach efforts to notify local businesses about the program, which adheres to the NYS Emergency Disaster Loan program signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo June 19, 2020.

More information about the program can be found on the Islip IDA website.