A grant program introduced by two council members would provide up to $5,000 to qualifying businesses.
TOLEDO, Ohio —
For El Rincon, a Mexican restaurant in south Toledo, the past four months have been rough.
Just outside the restaurant’s door, Broadway Street has been completely ripped up for construction. The owner’s son, Geovani Rodriguez Juarez, says this has caused a loss of 75% of its business.
“We’re very limited in how many people we can get and that obviously affects our sales and everything quite significantly,” he said.
A new project proposed by Toledo City Council members Theresa Gadus and Adam Martinez would grant financial support to small businesses, like El Rincon, impacted by construction.
“We want to use this as a ‘lessons learned’ pilot project for future road construction in our community,” Martinez said.
The Legacy Corridor Construction Mitigation Program Grant would only benefit businesses in the city’s legacy corridors — communities that formed when the city started growing.
“This isn’t new or unique to …