Businesses can use funds to defray costs associated with the pandemic
By Per Peterson
Lyon County will receive $3.1 million to put toward costs associated with COVID-19 relief, with an underdetermined amount being offered to businesses in the county to help offset expenses dealing with the pandemic and for revenue lost because of it.
Based on population, every local government across the county qualified for some relief in the form of grants or loans to be used for the local governments and its businesses that are within that area.
“This could possibly all come in the form of grants, so if you had any expenses or any hardship … you should apply for this,” said Tracy EDA Director Jeff Carpenter.
Carpenter said an application will be coming soon from the county; those business owners wishing to apply need to be current on their property taxes and might have to supply reasonable documentation for monies requested. He said he has heard that the estimated range of money to be allocated is $1,000-$5,000, depending on revenue and expenses.
“I know they’re trying to make the applications as simple as possible,” said Carpenter.
Examples of businesses that would qualify for the money include those that were completely shut down for any amount of time and were affected by the lack of work or business revenue — bars and restaurants, hair salons, barber shops, bowling alleys, dance studios and dentists for example. Carpenter believes these businesses would be at the top of the list for the grant opportunity.
Businesses that were possibly even in revenue from March-June 2019 to March-June 2020 but had expenses that were related to COVID would also qualify. These expenses could be of any dollar amount, so all businesses are encouraged to apply.
Also, if a business had an increase in revenue for the above time frame but those revenues were cut short by new job duties that have taken up hours of time, the purchase of cleaning supplies and Personal Protection Equipment such as masks and plastic dividers, those, too, would qualify.
The topic of relief distribution will likely be brought up for discussion at the next Lyon County Board of Commissioners meeting on Aug. 11.
“I think it’s very important for everybody to apply for it,” Carpenter said. “If the County doesn’t use this money, it goes back; if the City doesn’t use their portion of the money, it goes back.”
See this week’s Headlight Herald for more on this article.