Bethel Businesses and Customers: “Please don’t forget us”
Claudia Syx, a receptionist at a property-management firm in Bethel, can point to a number of friends who have left Connecticut for the South, where she says jobs are more plentiful and the cost of living not as high.
“We’re going to end up pricing everybody out of this state and you can’t blame them,” Claudia said. “The whole state is so overwhelmingly expensive, unless you have two salaries.”
While I toured Bethel businesses, I stopped by an office building on Stony Hill Road that houses three companies owned by the Scalzo family: a real estate agency, law firm and the property-management outfit where Claudia works.
Home prices are too high and “affordable” rentals are not that affordable, Claudia said. “Connecticut is bad but the whole country needs a big shakeup.”
Claudia said she likes my business background, which she deems a necessary asset for a U.S. Senator these days. As a former CEO, I understand that to create jobs we must eliminate the bureaucratic red tape and government regulations that harm our businesses and ship our jobs overseas.
The Scalzo family said they were thankful that their three businesses are still viable, despite declining building and home sales. But the news was not as good when I visited English Drug, a family-owned pharmacy for 105 years, which is closing this month.
Business has been cut in half because insurance companies are requiring patients to fill their prescriptions at a major chain, said pharmacist Dan Boulanger. As a result, the drug store is in foreclosure.
“The bank is deciding when we close,” he told me. “I can’t keep up with my bills.” I empathized with Dan. My husband, Vince, and I suffered the pain of bankruptcy 30 years ago.
Next door at Jacqueline’s Restaurant & Bakery, owner Arelis Fernandez said she was hanging in there.“We are holding our own,” she said.
Arelis said she appreciated that I have experience building and running my own business. I added that I also have experience “going under,” referring to our bankruptcy, coming back, and raising a family through it all.
On the way out of Jacqueline’s, I shook hands with families and couples sitting at the bakery’s cafe tables. “Please don’t forget us when you get down there,” several customers said.