Council re-instates Small Business Grant program using ARPA funds

In a passage of a single of the to start with resolutions of 2022, the Craig town council made the decision Tuesday to revive the city’s modest business enterprise grant software with the use of some of the city’s American Rescue Prepare Act money.

Past November, the tiny organization grant software was discontinued, in aspect mainly because of some council members’ fears about the program’s legality. Added considerations had been lifted that the $85,000 that was at first budgeted for the software could be greater utilised in other strategies.

But council voted unanimously in a restricted quorum — only mayor Ryan Hess and councilmembers Sean Hovorka, Chris Nichols and Jesse Jackson had been present, and all voted to move the resolution — to re-instate the method.

Having said that, with the inclusion of ARPA funds from the federal government, metropolis staff members associates who were being supporters of the program hoped that these supplemental funds could financially aid it. The town applied for a Department of Regional Affairs grant, but when the town did not acquire that grant, it was made a decision that ARPA could be used to deliver the exact same relief for little firms.

In addition to the $85,000 going toward continuing the compact business grants, council authorised that $262,791 of ARPA resources will go toward COVID-19 aid grants for corporations in Craig.

“There were being a whole lot of enterprises that have been impacted (by COVID-19) very last year, and it could also help with rent, storefront advancements and all that superior stuff,” Scott said. “Since the little enterprise grant method was voted to not carry on by the council, we’re hunting for alternate possibilities to carry that back again.”

According to the resolution, these grants “allow for financial loans or grants to mitigate economic hardship these kinds of as declines in revenues or impacts of intervals of organization closure, for case in point by supporting payroll and benefits charges, expenditures to keep personnel, mortgage, hire, or utilities prices, and other functioning expenditures and assistance to disproportionately impacted modest businesses to include the rehabilitation of business attributes, storefront advancements & façade improvements as very well as technological guidance, organization incubators & grants for start out-up or growth fees for smaller businesses.”

ARPA was passed by Congress in March of 2021 and allowed for the distribution of money throughout the nation for relief of hardships brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Especially, it was a $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue offer built to facilitate the United States’s recovery. Craig will obtain $2.267 million in ARPA dollars — $1.133 in January and the other 50 percent will be supplied this summer.

The modest organization grants included less than the resolution would operate the same as they did just before the method was discontinued, that means that companies would utilize for the grants and carry 50{93df639ba5729b348ae8590b358f91b5aa58d691ea2628f7cc4175889aae1ffa} of the value as a match. In the previous, tiny enterprise grants were made use of for the beautification of recipients’ businesses, which included new signs, awnings or facades. In the three yrs that the application existed just before it ended in November, 29 area companies ended up the recipients of extra than $250,000.