TAYLOR, LACKAWANNA COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — A local business in Lackawanna County is voicing its concerns over the challenges it faces due to the ongoing state budget impasse. The business has been forced to take the brunt of this budget gridlock, and they're looking for a solution.
28/22 News Reporter Colby Hughes has more details on how the business is handling this.
28/22 News spoke to the office manager at S&S Pools and Spas, and she says as more time passes without a spending plan in Harrisburg, the more worried she gets.
"If we don't do our job with our business, we don't get paid," S&S Pools and Spas Inc. Office Manager Janet Garvey stated.
The state contracts S&S Pools and Spas in Taylor to sell storage tanks to PennDOT.
While lawmakers in Harrisburg have yet to decide on a spending plan, the small business has not been paid what it's owed.
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"Right now, we're owed tens of thousands of dollars by the state. So, to a small business like us, that's a large amount of money that you lose sleep at night," Garvey expressed.
The tanks store brine, a combination of rock salt and water, which is used to treat roads before and after a winter storm.
The tanks can hold from five to ten thousand gallons of brine.
"This right here is a brine maker. So, what happens is we take our skidster, we fill it with salt, put it up here, and then it agitates it because you mix it with water as well," Garvey explained.
S&S Pools and Spas sells the brine tanks and sprayers to any snow removal company or municipality.
The tanks have already been delivered to PennDOT and hooked up, but the business is still waiting on payment.
"Our payment, right now, to the manufacturer is late. So, to keep a good financial standing with them, we're going to have to borrow from a line of credit to pay them, and until we get paid from the state, we're going to be paying interest on that loan," Garvey told 28/22 News.
Garvey says that since this is the first time in the four years since they've been contracted with the state that they aren't being paid.
They are hopeful for a resolution, but until then, they are suffering the consequences.
Those at S&S Pools and Spas would like to discuss their struggles with other business owners and host a roundtable discussion with state legislators in the near future.
