A boost in city of Kent small business grants to $6,500 and a loosening of restrictions could bring economic relief to more companies during the COVID-19 outbreak.<\/p>\n
Only about 87 businesses out of 220 applicants were eligible during the initial round of applications for the Kent Small Business Emergency Relief Funding grants, said Bill Ellis, city economic development manager, at a July 28 City Council Committee of the Whole meeting.<\/p>\n
Many were ineligible because they had received help from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). City staff revised the rules and decided a business could still get a city grant even if they had received funds from other agencies.<\/p>\n
Small business owners complained to the city about the restriction and pointed out that some of the SBA grants were for just $1,500 or $1,000.<\/p>\n
“We were rejecting almost half primarily because they received some form of SBA assistance,” said Ellis, who added staff then studied the issue and decided to make the change since the new rules still complied with requirements about how the city could spend federal CARES Act funds.<\/p>\n
City staff also decided to increase the grant to $6,500 per business up from $4,500.<\/p>\n
“The dollar amount increasing is something that changed as we looked at partial closures and phases continuing longer that it’s sensible to increase the size of the awards,” Ellis said.<\/p>\n
The city will pay for a total of $1.5 million in grants from a $3.8 million grant it received from the state Department of Commerce through the federal CARES Act. Kent will hold on to about $2.3 million of the grant to cover costs to the city because of COVID-19.<\/p>\n