Brian Zysek with Installation, Inc. is busy working to repair the Beachhead Restaurant in East Haven. It was one of the places hit by Sandy.
“It's not hard to see the damage that was done. It's not a scam. And it happened around the worse time, around Christmas time. A lot of the business, restaurants and workers took most of December off because they were battling with FEMA,” said Zysek.
While the federal government does give businesses money to get back on their feet, it's by no means instantaneous. So businesses are kept in the lurch, trying to figure out what to do.
“They have to wait. There's a whole process. There's paperwork. Meanwhile, they A- have nowhere to live or no business to run,” said Zysek.
Governor Malloy is proposing new legislation that would get victims the money they need and fast! He wants to set up the Connecticut Coordinated Assistance and Recovery Endowment, or CARE, which would serve as one big account set up to handle private donations.
“Every time we have an incident like this, somebody has to go through the paperwork and the time it takes to put these funds together,” said Governor Dannel Malloy.
This fund would eliminate that timely process and would guarantee that the donations are going to the right place.
“We were contacted at our Senate office for folks along Cosey Beach by people who wanted to donate, but they weren't sure where to donate to, where to send the money to. I couldn't identify a group other than the Red Cross. This now gives a whole other opportunity,” said Senator Len Fasano, who represents East Haven.
CARE still needs to be approved by the legislature, but the Governor doesn't anticipate any objections