Onondaga County to help local restaurants continue outdoor dining in the winter

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Area restaurants that would like to keep offering outdoor dining this winter amid the coronavirus pandemic can tap grant funding to help.

The Trust for Cultural Resources of the County of Onondaga will offer $200,000 in grant money for up to a $5,000 match with local restaurants.

The funding can target investments in equipment to help keep their outdoor-dining business going as the temperatures drop.

“As we shift into wintertime, we talked about how we’re going to work to help our restaurants work on [continuing to offer] outdoor dining,” Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said in his Thursday coronavirus briefing at the Oncenter.

Those applications will be available next week for restaurants to pursue that grant funding, he noted.

“Whether it’s tents, whether it’s heaters, whether it’s igloos, there’s lot of different things out there and obviously, we need to help our small businesses continue to operate moving forward … into the winter,” McMahon said.

Details on the Trust for Cultural Resources of the County of Onondaga are outlined on the website of the Onondaga County Office of Economic Development. The Trust “supports, promotes and protects the institutions that provide cultural, educational and recreational opportunities to the people of Onondaga County and New York State,” per the website.