Nassau County Executive Laura Curran is taking steps to revitalize village downtowns battered by the forced shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
On the first day of reopening last week, after 67 days of the New York On Pause quarantine, Curran announced new programs aimed at giving a lifeline to small businesses and restaurants: a plan to open main streets for outdoor dining and a program to deliver complete personal protective equipment kits to small businesses passed over by the federal program.
Open Streets, Curran said, creates a fast track for municipalities to get approval from Nassau County to close county roads so restaurants can provide outdoor dining – still under the guidelines of curbside and take-out – so that restaurants can achieve a level of business to be viable.
“The shutdown has come at a high cost for our county’s downtowns, the restaurants, and mom and pop shops that previously were the lifeblood of communities,” she said.
Curran is expediting the permitting process for county roads so a village could, say, close the street one or two nights a week. “No paperwork, snail mail or fees and we are committed to approving the permit within one week,” she said.
Richard Kessel, chairman of the Nassau Industrial Development Agency, lauded Curran’s work with municipalities in trying to reopen Nassau’s downtowns quickly and safely.
“County Executive Curran did a great job and we give her a lot of credit to use county roads, especially main streets to open up with outdoor dining and working with villages to do so,” he said.
Even though the proposal would mainly impact roads owned by the town or county, Kessel said, villages would still need to file permits to allow for restaurants within the village to participate in outdoor dining options.
Officials from the Town of North Hempstead said the town will follow the lead of Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state in its decision-making, but preliminary talks have been held.
“At this time closing main streets is not permissible as per the Governor,” the statement from town officials said. “However, our business recovery team is currently looking into it, so we will be able to implement a plan if it becomes permissible.”
A discussion within the Village of Great Neck took place on Tuesday night, where the board authorized Mayor Pedram Bral to arrange street closings as he sees fit whenever Cuomo deems outdoor dining to be appropriate.
As of now, dining is considered to be a part of the third phase in New York’s reopening plan, but Curran said she will work hard to try and push it into phase two.
It may not work for all communities, but those municipalities who see the benefit can apply at nassaucounty.gov/openstreets.
Farmingdale initially presented the idea to transform its Main Street to outdoor dining. The plan will provide for 424 socially distanced seats and utilizing parking lots.
A second business-friendly economic revitalization initiative is to facilitate acquiring personal protective equipment so that local businesses can meet the guidelines for reopening.
“One of the main questions from chambers has been where businesses can get the personal protective equipment for their employees,” Curran said. The county is enlisting its Industrial Development Agency, which in partnership with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, is investing $500,000 to purchase personal protective equipment kits for small businesses.
Each kit consists of a contactless infrared thermometer, five face shields, 400 three-ply masks, 100 pairs of gloves, two gallons of sanitizer and sanitary wipes.
The county is purchasing enough to supply 1,000 businesses on a first-come, first-served basis (apply at boostnassau.net). The county is particularly targeting small businesses – minority and women-owned – that were “passed over” by the federal small-business relief program.
Kessel said he hopes the personal protective equipment provisions will encourage small businesses to participate.
New York state passed legislation to allocate Nassau County IDA up to $10,000 in grants, and $25,000 in loans for additional PPE.
“It’s an important tool to expand business receipts while mitigating risk,” Curran said.
There is urgency, she added, to get back to business in a way that also mitigates the risk of spreading the coronavirus.
“We know PPE works. Any coming back requires PPE,” Curran said. “Now we can begin reopening.”
Curran estimated that a couple of dozen villages could take advantage of this program because the main street is a county road, but other villages could use the same “tool kit” on village or town roads. “We will share the tool kit.”
This program complies with the restriction on restaurants for curbside and carry-out; in phase 3 of the state’s reopening plan, restaurants will be able to have indoor table service.
“This is an innovation, not a loophole, so the community can work their way back,” Curran said.
What if “stupid” people abuse the rules? “Our residents have been doing a smart job,” Curran said. “We can handle our freedom.”
But Curran said, pointing to the symbiotic relationship between business and local government, “the success of business in Nassau County is linked to the services county government provides – police, fire, EMT, health, DPW all continuing to provide services; 40% of the county’s budget is generated from sales tax, so the success of business is also tied to the success of the county to provide services.”
Nassau County is working with Suffolk – “One Long Island” – to hit the benchmarks to reopen under the state’s matrix. Both Nassau and Suffolk have suffered some of the highest rates of COVID-19 in the country, totaling 79,499 confirmed cases. New York City, so far has recorded 201,051 cases.
The rates of infection, though, have come down dramatically as a result of the lockdown and social distancing measures.
As of Tuesday, there were a total of 40,572 cases, and 2,127 coronavirus-related deaths, throughout Nassau County, according to statistics provided by the county Department of Health.
Karen Rubin contributed reporting.
