Borough of Point Pleasant – Recently, Mayor Robert A. Sabosik and the Borough Council have announced township wide improvements dramatically changing the face of Point Borough including additional pedestrian and bicycle safety initiatives such as more sidewalks and traffic safety measures.
In an effort to modernize Bridge Avenue, the Mayor and Council also approved plans to eliminate the head in parking at Lenny’s Colonial Ranch and create a public parking lot with one way patters at the Tree Needle Road triangle to eliminate congestion.
On this momentum, the Mayor stated that “The next phase is trying to get some of the businesses along Bridge Avenue and Route 88 to update their existing buildings. Some of the owners have owned these properties for decades and we would like them to make some improvements to modernize the center of our town. While we can’t force them, we certainly can make them aware of opportunities to make capital improvements at a significant savings to them. The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) has a small business improvement grant program to assist them. Basically, a small business owner, renter or non-profit can apply for a grant to make capital improvements such as new signage, new siding, new windows etc. for a reimbursement of up to 50% of eligible total projects costs up to $50,000.00. So if you own or rent a commercial building in Point Pleasant and for argument sake, you have a $100,000.00 improvement project going on, you can potentially get half of that reimbursed. The program itself is being funded via $60 million dollars from the Main Street Recovery Finance Program.”
Council President Antoinette DePaola added that “It’s important that our local businesses know this is available. It’s on a rolling application basis and will continue until all the funds from the project grant run out at the State level, so we need local businesses to act on this rather quickly. We will be sending letters to each commercial business owner in town along with asking the Chamber of Commerce to help assist us in getting the word out.”
Borough Administrator Frank Pannucci said that “It’s important to realize that this is a State program and not a local program. I have to applaud the Mayor and Council for finding this program and bringing it to our local businesses’ attention. All information on this grant can be found at www.njeda.gov and key word the Small Business Improvement Grant – NJEDA.
