More than 100 businesses applied for county business assistance grant program

19 Sep 2020


Government, Business, Economic Development, Community

The Morrison County Board of Commissioners discussed a possible increase in funding for the, now closed, business assistance grant program at the planning session, Tuesday.

The Board announced in July the approval of $408,000 from CARES Act funds to disperse in grants of up to $5,000 to for-profit businesses in the county. After applications closed, the Rural Development Finance Authority (RDFA) Board met and found that the approximately 106 businesses that applied requested about $454,600 in grants.

About eight applications were found to be missing additional documentation, but County Administrator Deb Gruber said the RDFA is working to collect that information and those applications were included in the total funding request.

Gruber brought the findings to the commissioners to see if they would approve of expanding the program by about $46,000 to support the total reflected in the grant applications or if they would ask the RDFA to make cuts.

The business assistance program was created to help small businesses in the county who demonstrated financial hardship due to interruptions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the full article here.