County commissioners have officially launched a business grant program using funds from the federal CARES COVID-19 Relief Act.
In late May, the Platte County Economic Development Council and county commission hosted a one-day online seminar for business owners to float the program and gauge interest in the business community.
At the Monday, June 8 administrative session, commissioners approved a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Platte County and the EDC for “administrative services needed in administering a grant program to small businesses to assist in recovering the costs of business interruption required by the response to the COVID-19 virus.”
Platte County will allocate a portion of its approximately $12 million in CARES funding for use in the business grant program. The county will prepare grant criteria, appoint a review board to evaluate applications and then award grants based upon the recommendations made.
Commissioners appointed an advisory committee to assist with allocation of grant funding. Committee members are Shane Bartee, Scott Fricker and Duane Soper.
The EDC is tasked with overseeing administrative services, developing the application package, gathering information to assist the review board and the county within an established time frame. The EDC staff will be compensated for this work through the CARES Act.
Presiding commissioner Ron Schieber said the program will, hopefully, be two-fold, providing quick assistance in the near future and the resources to help small businesses affected by the COVID-19 shut-downs to grow through the rest of the year.
“We believe it’s extremely important to get some of this money on the street as quickly as possible to some of these small businesses that are really hurting so that they can survive,” Schieber said.
Schieber said as the closures were caused by government action, the government needs to help those businesses to get back on their feet. He said the commission is partnering with the EDC and receiving input from business leaders and other taxing entities, whose tax proceeds have taken a hit during the closures.
EDC executive director Matt Tapp said he continues to hear from businesses large and small who are working to recover from the closures. Grant applications will be available soon on the EDC website, he said.
Commissioners also heard from some of those impacted business owners and chamber of commerce representatives prior to the approval of the memorandum of understanding with the EDC. Those patrons support the new program, stating they have been negatively affected by the COVID-19 closures.
Schieber said county attorneys have advised commissioners that the wording of the CARES Act gives the county the latitude to use the funds to not only reimburse businesses for COVID-related expenses, but also for lost revenue.
Platte Woods mayor John Smedley also spoke, as mayor and representative of the county mayors’ council.
He noted that while he supports use of funding to assist businesses, municipalities also need assistance to offset costs associated with extra precautionary measures taken to keep city services running.
An infected officer in the police department could shut down the entire city police force, he said, noting that the courts are also reopening soon and officers are required to attend hearings where they could be exposed to the virus.
Meetings were held with county auditor Kevin Robinson after the commission session to hammer out the details of the program.
During the meeting, Robinson warned that the memorandum of understanding was merely one step in the process to create this new grant program.
“This process is just getting started,” Robinson said of the MOU, and encouraged the public to attend upcoming meetings on the program specifics. “At the end of the day my office is going to ensure that we are compliant for internal controls; we are going to ensure, because this is federal money, that over the next two years we are compliant with SEMA audit requirements and potential future federal audits of the distribution of this money.”