A third round of small business grants from Aberdeen’s federal CARES Act COVID-19 relief allotment was announced by the city Tuesday.
The announcement from Community Development Director Lisa Scott said the applications would go live on the city’s website, aberdeenwa.gov, after 1 p.m. Wednesday.
Grants to $10,000 are available for qualifying businesses. Grant amounts are based on net loss statements between March 1, 2019-May 31, 2019, and March 1, 2020-May 31, 2020; maximum awards will be 30% of the net loss amounts for those months.
The city as of late September had qualified for close to $760,000 in federal CARES Act relief funding. These are reimbursable funds, meaning the city must first make the expenditures, then apply for reimbursement through the state Department of Commerce, which administers CARES Act funds for the state. The small business grants from the city do not have to be repaid by approved applicants.
The first two rounds of city small business grants amounted to just under $124,000. The City Council had approved $200,000 for small business grants, leaving about $76,000 available for round three.
When combined with other allowable CARES Act expenditures, including cleaning of city facilities, personal protective gear, and maintenance of the city’s homeless camp, about $286,600 of the city’s CARES Act allotment remained unspoken for in late September.
Round three small business grant applications are due no later than Wednesday, Oct. 21 at 5 p.m. Late applications will not be accepted. Currently, the deadline for the city to apply for reimbursement for CARES Act funds is Nov. 30. The city arrived at the application due date to make sure grants could be approved and distributed before the reimbursement deadline.
To qualify for round three of the small business grants, applicants must:
• Have a current City of Aberdeen business license and have been in business for at least one year prior to March 1, 2020.
• Be in good financial standing with City of Aberdeen finances — i.e. B & O taxes, utilities fees.
• Have a physical business location within the city limits of Aberdeen on or before March 1, 2019.
• Have no more than 20 full-time-equivalent employees — priority given to business with 10 or fewer full-time-equivalent employees.
• Engage in the type of business eligible to receive funding by the US Small Business Administration.
• Demonstrate the loss of income due to COVID-19.
• Prove that they have been previously profitable with financial statements and/or tax returns.
