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January 12, 2021

Lamont highlights aid to struggling small businesses 

HBJ Photo | Joe Cooper Downtown retailer Jody Morneault’s Stackpole Moore Tryon has pivoted to online sales since the pandemic.
By Liese Klein

It’s not often that an official state press conference results in a flood of tears.

“Our state capital right now is totally crumbling and it’s devastated,” said Jody Morneault, owner of downtown Hartford clothing store Stackpole Moore Tryon at 242 Trumbull St. 

Openly sobbing, Morneault added that she experienced many economic downturns in her 42 years in business but this was different. “It looks like a neutron bomb went off,” she said of a downtown that had been “deserted” by corporations and their workers. 

Morneault and other business owners used words like “devastating” often in the Tuesday press conference on the state of small businesses in Connecticut. Meant to highlight the impact of state aid programs, the press conference opened with stories of loss and pain. 

State grants and Paycheck Protection Program loans have helped, business owners said. Morneault said that her tears in part were gratitude for a state check that arrived in the mail this week. 

“This money meant so much to me,” Morneault said. “I don’t want to close my store.”

About 2,000 checks were sent out on Friday to help the hardest-hit businesses under the state’s Business Recovery Grant program, said David Lehman, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development. The state is also doing what it can to help businesses access the newest round of PPP funding.

“This has been longer and harder for our business and residents than anyone could have expected,” Lehman said.

Governor Ned Lamont said he was doing everything possible to help businesses, promising to send his kids to buy clothes at Stackpole Moore Tryon.

“You’re the heart and soul of Hartford,” Lamont said to Morneault. “We’re doing everything we can to help you get through this. I hear that pain.”

Later in the news event, the governor promised to lead an effort to revive downtown Hartford. 

"We'll be a champion for these local businesses," Lamont said. 

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