BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — The Bakersfield City Council approved a grant for the Bakersfield Downtown Business Association on Wednesday night, November 16th. The grant aims to help business owners with private security.
“It’s really important to the businesses Downtown that they feel heard and seen by the city, that they are willing to pitch in and to help them with what they’re going through," said Melanie Farmer, President and CEO of the Downtown Business Association. "They want their streets for their businesses to be safe for them, but especially be safe for their customers.”
Farmer says the city’s approval of the $50,000 grant came from the American Rescue Plan Act. She also says that these funds come following the first phase of their Block to Block Project that began in the month of March.
The project consisted of having a local security agent present, patrolling on foot near various businesses across the Downtown area. In the second phase, they implemented additional security measures by having driving patrols.
“That’s when we went to the city," explained Farmer. "It's still existing now. It's just the businesses were paying in. With this, this helps give the businesses money to help fund it instead of them paying for all of it. We are seeking federal funds and state funds as well to assist us with the situation.”
Additional safety was also discussed at the City Council meeting last week. The city also approved a $500,000 funded program for private business security agreements. The motion was made by City Councilman Andrae Gonzales, who oversees Ward 2.
“What we’re going to do is we’re going to use the American Rescue Plan Act Funds, about a half-a-million dollars out of the $90 million plus that we’ve received from the federal government," said Gonzales. "We’re allocating half-a-million dollars so that we can invest in our private businesses in our commercial corridors so that those businesses that are impacted by crime can do a few things.”
Gonzales says one of the many ways Downtown businesses can benefit from this is by installing additional security systems, adding that this program is just another tool in their toolkit to improve the Downtown area.
"Those businesses really are the backbone of our local economy," said Gonzales. "Those small businesses are being impacted particularly now with inflation on the rise and with a pending recession. So it's really important that we are able to really mitigate some of those impacts that crime has had on many of those commercial corridors.”
