Paoli Cleaners Awarded $9,500 State Grant for New Burner

A Chester County dry cleaners will replace its oil-fired burner with a more efficient gas-fired burner with help from a $9,500 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Paoli Cleaners, Inc., located on Lancaster Avenue, is one of seven county businesses awarded funding from the DEP’s Small Business Advantage Grant Program, according to the office of State Senator Andy Dinniman.

The have been awarded $50,340 in total state funding to invest in energy-efficiency projects, including:

• Casmos Liquor LLC will receive $9,500 to replace and upgrade its HVAC system.
• Deer Creek Malthouse LLC in Glen Mills will receive $9,500 to replace and upgrade its HVAC system.
• 243 World Domination LLC in Collegeville will receive $9,500 to replace and upgrade its HVAC system.
• Swann’s Pantry Inc. in Exton will receive $6,902 for energy efficient lighting upgrades.
• Greg A. Vietri Inc. in Coatesville will receive $3,841 to upgrade its warehouse lighting.
• The Clean Store LLC in Berwyn will receive $1,597 to install a tankless water heater.

“Energy efficient upgrades not only cut costs and increase profitability, they also benefit our environment.” Dinniman said. “These grants can go a long way in helping small businesses realize the advantages of investing in such projects.”

Pennsylvania’s Small Business Advantage Grant program, funded through the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act, helps businesses with 100 or fewer employees. It provides 50-percent matching reimbursement grants of up to $9,500 to implement projects that will save 25 percent annually in pollution-prevention or energy-related costs.

Examples of eligible projects include HVAC and boiler upgrades, high-efficiency lighting, solvent recovery systems, waste recycling systems and auxiliary power units deployed as an anti-idling technology for trucks.

These grants come as part of $980,000 in total grant funding to help 139 small businesses across Pennsylvania invest in energy-efficiency or pollution-prevention projects. They will create more than $2.5 million in private-sector investment in small businesses, according to Dinniman.

Since 2004, the Small Business Advantage Grant program has awarded nearly $9.5 million in more than 1,915 small businesses statewide.

For more information about the program, contact DEP’s Office of the Small Business Ombudsman at (717) 772-8909 or epadvantagegrant@pa.gov.