ASHLAND — Ashland City Council has approved moving forward with the City of Ashland Relief Business Grant Fund.
It will provide financial assistance to local small businesses who submit an application and meet certain criteria.
This past spring, many local businesses who were deemed “unessential” were forced to close for several months due to no fault of their continued to have expenses despite the shutdown.
Ashland plans to aid these affected businesses with up to $5,000 of relief funds.
Eligible business must be physically established businesses that operate within the City of Ashland’s geographic boundaries.
“Several months ago, the State Legislature here in the state of Ohio approved House Bill 481 that made available to local communities, villages, townships, counties and cities Covid relief monies that would be coming to us through the state,” said Mayor Matt Miller. “Basically what this would do is allow our small business with 15 employees or less to apply to the city for a grant up to $5,000 to help them with revenue loss and capital expenses during this Covid situation.”
Interested business are required to fill out an application to request reimbursement for some of their expenses and lost revenue. Application can be picked up and submitted to Amanda Patterson, Ashland community outreach coordinator. For additional information, you can contact Patterson at 419-289-4181.
The city will receive a total of $315,000 in state grant money.
It is not a loan, so the money does not need to be paid back, nor will this come out of Ashland taxpayers’ pockets.
The funds come directly from the CARES acts that was passed in March.
The applications will be reviewed by a group of city leaders on a first-come, first-serve basis to analyze the legitimacy of each application. They will then decide if the establishment is in need of financial assistance at this time.
Money received from the fund can be used for rent/mortgage payments, utility expenses, employee salaries as well as other unforeseen expenses caused by the pandemic.
“This program would allow us as a city to help some of these smaller operations remain viable during this time,” Miller said. “If we should find that there is a much greater need and many more applications than what we expect, there might be the possibility that we could access additional Covid relief funding through the state to help other businesses.”
The money must be used by Oct. 31, so any business that has been negatively affected by COVID-19 is encouraged to apply.
