CAN-DO MAN
At 89 years-young, Sol Soskin helps small biz and his community too

In his eighty-ninth year, Sol Soskin, Director of the Procurement Technical Assistance Program (PTAP), of the Long Island Development Corporation (LIDC), and a resident of Little Neck’s Deepdale Gardens Co-op, since 1953, has enough energy to put most forty-year olds to shame. The octogenarian shows no sign of slowing down either in his professional life at PTAP or with his community involvement.
In addition to his job at PTAC, Soskin has been a member of Community Board 11 for 35 years, as well as having been involved with the 111th Precinct Community Council since 1954, serving as its president 20 times.
A widower of two years following a 61-year marriage, Soskin has been lucky enough to combine his career with a passion for helping people. He keeps so busy he’s lost track of the awards he won over the years. “I just got an award for 20 years dedicated service to the Federal Government.” His other awards over the years include being selected by the Corporate Division of Long Island Development Corp. as Employee of the Year, and a fellowship from the National Contract Association.
Of all his activities, which taken together cause him to work long hours - often giving up his nights and weekends and adding 100,000 miles a year on his car - he finds being a small business advocate is the most rewarding.
In almost 20 years at PTAP, Soskin has helped countless small businesses obtain affordable loans and trained them to prepare proposals to obtain contracts from Local, State and Federal Government Departments. Individual loans to businesses may be as small as $2,000, but taken together, PTAP has helped Long Island companies win over $1.5 billion.
Soskin’s expertise in dealing with government stems from his own years in the civil service. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in May 1941, and discharged on November 1945, having earned a purple heart. “In 1948 I went into the civil service working for the army from 1948-1965 when it was headquartered on Governors Island,” he said. Later he was assigned to the navy office at Grumman Aerospace in Bethpage, Long Island, where he remained for 15 years. All of these jobs entailed working with small businesses.
“I run a program partially funded by U.S. Department of Defense to help small businesses get government contracts on Long Island. I run seminars and programs for beginners - companies that have never dealt with government before. The bureaucracy can be very daunting,” he said. Soskin also looks for sponsorship in program from banks, as well as the business development agency.
His biggest challenge in the coming year is to, “Find out whose buying what for homeland security and reach out to small business to supply them,” he said.
Everything PTAP does is free and Soskin is often surprised how many people don’t know about what PTAP can offer. “Every time one of our clients gets a contract we feel we’ve done a good job,” he said. “All Long Island businesses have to do is call and make an appointment. We sit them down and counsel them.”
Soskin’s personal optimism is tempered slightly by his concern that in today’s world, life is so busy there is no time for community involvement.
He points to the annual holiday parade that used to go from 47th Avenue to the Bayside movie theater where 300-500 kids selected by the 111th Precinct commander would get to watch a free movie, meet Santa and receive sweets and other small gifts. After the theater closed, the parade took place in reverse, marching down to the school on Bell Boulevard between 46-47th Avenues. Instead of a movie there was a magic show and candy.
“Last year there was no parade. We asked for volunteers and contributions but didn’t get enough. We can’t even get a recording secretary. The treasurer has to take the minutes. Volunteers get no reward.”
Soskin says it’s hard to find people to run for the 111th Precinct Executive Committee nowadays. “We used to get a lot of support, but now we don’t. Things are different, there’s apathy. We just don’t have luck finding people no matter how hard we try. We write letters to the banks, but don’t get anything back. We need at least $2,000 for the parade.” He says people always ask about the parade, but don’t volunteer to help.
“The police cooperate with the parade but need volunteers and people to help. One person did it, but they disappeared. The last good parade was four to five years ago.”
His work for the 111th Precinct is clearly important to Soskin. “Working very closely with the commanding officer we get a feel for the things the precinct needs,” he says. Over the years he’s raised money to buy the auxiliary police raincoats when he found them standing in the rain without coats. He even raised enough funds to buy the anti-crime unit a car and for 10 bicycles for the cycle police patrol. “We talked someone into doing the maintenance for the bikes free,” he said with pride.
Although Soskin works hard, when he talks about securing a $2.5 million contract for Grucci Fireworks (he sat down with members of the Grucci family and went through the government specifications and documentations page by page) it is hard not to think that some of his energy and drive come partly from retaining a sense of fun.
“We’re planning another 15 years together,” Lena said.