Soon $500,000 will flow into Knox County to help small business owners recover from losses felt from the COVID-19 shutdown.
Even as small businesses look to reopen under the guidelines set forth by Gov. Eric Holcomb’s back-on-track plan for the state's economy, city and county elected officials learned this week that they were successful in their application for some state funds aimed at helping employers to keep low-to-moderate income jobs.
Both the county commissioners and the city council applied for money from the state's now revamped Community Development Block Grant, a program run through the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs.
“Our letter came Monday,” said commission president Kellie Streeter. “This money is for us to give grants to those businesses that fit the criteria.
“There will be an application process, one we are currently critiquing.”
The commissioners will talk more about what their application process will look like when they meet in regular session at 10 a.m. today.
Earlier, they decided, should they be successful, that they would aim to offer grants of up to $5,000 for businesses with 25 or fewer employees and $10,000 to larger businesses.
Streeter said there are still grant documents to sign and send back to the state; a public hearing, too, will be required.
The entire process could take upwards of 60 days.
In the meantime, she said, the commissioners will likely look to put together a committee to consider applications.
“I’ve asked Jamie Neal, president of the (Knox County Chamber of Commerce), to assist us with that,” she said. “And we’re hoping we’ll be able to work with the city so our processes for application are largely the same.”
The city council last month met in special session and approved a resolution creating a similar micro-loan program, one through its Revolving Loan Fund.
The program, as it was set up, allows for small businesses with fewer than 25 employees to apply through the city clerk-treasurer's office for loans of up to $5,000.
The Revolving Loan Fund, which is operated by a 5-member board comprised of two local bankers, the mayor, the city attorney and clerk-treasurer, has been used by businesses as a sort of lender-of-last-resort for years.
But the city applied for the $250,000 OCRA grant as well.
Mayor Joe Yochum said he held off on calling a meeting of the RLF committee until he heard, for sure, about the grant funds. There have been eight applications so far.
Now that they have the grant secured, they will wait a little longer to fully understand the criteria set forth and, hopefully, be able to give away money as opposed to loaning it.
“Why would we ask (business owners) to repay if we can do this,” said city council president Tim Salters. “This would be a better benefit to our businesses.”
City and county elected officials, too, say the money — even if it arrives as businesses are looking to reopen — isn’t coming too late.
The effects of the COVID-19 shutdown are likely to be felt for months to come, and many already have shortfalls that need to be made up.
“Our application will have them describe how COVID-19 has impacted their business and how these funds would be used in terms of stabilizing that business,” Streeter explained.
“The word stabilizing is the important one to me,” she said. “They’ll tell us, ‘This is where we’ve taken a hit and this is how we will use that money to get us back to where we were pre-COVID-19.”
Salters agreed.
“Business might still be slow as people figure out new policies and procedures. The public, some of them, might not be comfortable going out just yet,”he said. “Just because (businesses) are back open doesn’t mean it will be like flipping on a light switch.
“It’s going to take some time, and we want to do what we can to put our businesses in the best position possible.
Copyright ©2024 Vincennes Sun Commercial