City of Paso Robles awards COVID-19 small business grants
–The City of Paso Robles created a COVID-19 Small Business Grant Program utilizing $200,000 in federal CARES Act funds to provide one-time grant funding for small businesses in Paso Robles.
The program was created to support local economic recovery by helping businesses address COVID-19 impacts and to help them retain their employees.
The program was announced on Aug. 7 and the deadline to apply was Aug. 23. The city received over 100 applications, with grant requests totaling over $1 Million, far exceeding the $200,000 in available CARES Act funds for the program.
Each application was carefully reviewed by a selection committee to ensure each grantee met the program criteria. In total, 33 local businesses in various locations, and ranging in size from 1 to 21 employees, were selected to receive a grant.
These awarded grant funds support a combined total of 209 local jobs across a variety of business sectors including food service, child daycare, hair salons, retail, non-profits, tech services, and more.
“While many cities are using their federal CARES Act funding allocation solely to reimburse city pandemic response costs, we felt it essential to use the majority of Paso Robles’ funds to support the businesses that form the foundation of Paso’s local economy,” Mayor Steve Martin said. “We only wish we had sufficient funds to meet the broader needs that exist, and I encourage local residents to continue to support Paso businesses.”
In accordance with CARES Act guidelines, the grant funds can be used for documented business operations expenses such as rent or mortgage, payroll, utilities, insurance, loan payments related to running the business, etc.
Grant recipients will be required to provide basic reporting to the city on how grant funds were utilized.
Small businesses seeking support can see all of the state and federal programs available here.
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