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ROTTERDAM
Businesses find grant program more appealing
Applicants attracted by more money
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    Joe Lapczenski put a lot of work into Carman Hardware last summer.
    Since taking over the business this year, he’s put a new roof on the building, a fresh coat of paint on the exterior and repaved the store’s badly deteriorated parking lot. The extra effort spruced up the building and brought the store more business, but also took a toll on Lapczenski’s operating capital.
    “The paving alone was a tough decision,” he said Wednesday. “It was a lot of bucks, but it was in desperate need.”
    The renovation was costly enough that Lapczenski wasn’t sure he’d have enough money left over to hire some much needed help. That was until he learned of the Rotterdam Industrial Development Agency’s small business grants this fall.
    Carman Hardware was among 10 businesses to receive a $5,000 facade improvement grant through the agency recently. The agency selected the recipients among a pool of 22 businesses that applied for the funding, marking a large increase from when 10 similar grants were offered in 2007 and only nine businesses applied for them.
    “This is a little extra spark to keep the economic development moving,” said agency Chairman Angelo Santabarbara.
    He said businesses found the latest round of grants more appealing because they were double the amount offered last year. The grants require business owners to invest at least $10,000 toward facade improvements, building sidewalks, adding landscaping or bettering handicap accessibility.
    “We saw that it was a good program and a good success,” he said.
    Businesses like Carman Hardware that already completed the improvements were also allowed to apply for the grants. Santabarbara said these types of applications were considered as long as the renovations had been done within the time frame that the grants were offered.
    Santabarbara said the grants were fairly evenly spread throughout Rotterdam. Like the previous year, a majority of applicants came from the businesses along Hamburg Street, where the recently established .......................................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00800

Carman Hardware looks fantastic.....let's hope the bad element is discouraged by this 'paying attention' on this end of town......