Report: Credit loosening for small business
More small-business owners are applying for credit ”“ and getting it ”“ according to a new report.
Out of the 850 small businesses polled by The Federal Reserve Bank of New York spanning New York, northern New Jersey and Fairfield County in Connecticut, 33 percent report having applied for credit in the first quarter; about two-thirds or 561 of those small businesses were approved.
High outstanding debt and weak sales were attributors in denial of credit where applicable.
Vitale moves on
Paul Vitale, vice president of government and community relations at The Business Council of Westchester, will leave the organization at the end of August to work for a family business.
Vitale has worked with the Business Council for seven years, transforming the Governmental Action Council into a formidable advocacy arm for businesses in Westchester.
“He worked each day to have the voices of our membership heard,” the Business Council said of his departure.
Blythedale gets bank grant
Blythedale Children”™s Hospital in Valhalla received $12,000 from the TD Charitable Foundation for the hospital”™s Child Life Program, which supports optimal development through creative play.
The hospital is under way on a $65.3 million modernization project, The Journeys of Hope Capital Campaign, which will transform a 55,760-square-foot building into a patient-centered environment with the latest technology, with a scheduled completion date of December 2011.
The building will feature expanded inpatient rooms designed with the overnight parent in mind. Outdoor gardens will be planted, including pocket gardens around each patient room cluster. Other building amenities will be an infant, toddler and post-neonatal and pediatric intensive care unit, traumatic brain injury unit, pediatric and adolescent inpatient unit and family resource center.
The crown comes to town
Westchester just got a little prettier.
There will be no shortage of beauty queens ”“ and their friends, family and fans ”“ on parade come January when the Performing Arts Center of SUNY Purchase hosts the 2012 Miss New York USA and Miss New York Teen USA pageants, from Jan. 13 to Jan. 15.
The pageants could pump an estimated $3 million into the local economy in one weekend. About 300 contestants are expected to travel from around New York state to the pageants, according to K2 Productions, the company organizer for the New York and Miss California USA pageants.
“This is a tremendous opportunity to showcase Westchester County to hundreds of visiting contestants and their families, as they stay in our premier hotels, dine at our top-rated restaurants and visit our many cultural and historic attractions during what is typically a slow period in the industry,” County Executive Rob Astorino said at a news conference last week.
Astorino was joined by Assemblyman Robert Castelli, who was involved in the planning stage to bring the pageants to the county; Miss USA Alyssa Campanella, Keith Lewis of K2 Productions and Westchester pageant winners.
