Following a public forum at Tuesday’s meeting, Allen County commissioners approved moving forward on a grant from the Kansas Department of Commerce in collaboration with Thrive Allen County.
Last week, Commerce announced it would offer an additional round of Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) — after the state received federal funds through the CARES act — this time with funds going toward helping communities weather the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At last week’s meeting, commissioners agreed to partner with Thrive in order to pursue the highly competitive CDBG-CV grant, with hopes of the county being awarded up to $300,000.
If awarded, the county would then distribute funds to help local businesses retain low-to-moderate income employees.
With regard to specifics of the distribution, micro-businesses (with five or fewer employees) would be eligible to receive $2,500 for up to three employees for a total of $7,500.
Small businesses (with 50 or fewer employees) would be eligible to receive $1,500 for up to 10 employees for a total of $15,000.
Businesses would be required to provide documentation — via the county — as to how much their employees earn, along with receipts showing what items funds were spent on.
More than half of a business’s employees must be in the low-to-middle income bracket, earning less than $35,600. Funds also cannot be spent on certain items, such as loan-repayment (or in tandem with the Payment Protection Plan).
Based on population demographics, 45% of funds would go to Iola, 35% to Humboldt and the remaining 25% to the surrounding county.
If additional funds remain after the Phase I distribution, in Phase II funds can be distributed anywhere in the county.
The goal, Thrive CEO Lisse Regehr explained, is to make funds available “to as many business owners in the community as possible.”
She also said that award notification would occur within 15-20 days of applying for the grant. Regehr said she intended to submit the grant by Tuesday afternoon.
Commissioner Bruce Symes added that there would be a “first-come, first-serve consideration” within the county.
As CDBG-CV is a grant as opposed to a loan, any funds received would not have to be repaid.
ONE requirement for applying for the grant includes holding a public hearing and gathering public comments from local business owners and other stakeholders, so commissioners opened up a portion of their usual meeting to serve that purpose.
One community member who commented was Larry Manes of Moran, who said he was “very pleased with the idea of separating the funds geographically.”
