Businesses can now apply for grants worth up to $20,000
Thursday was the first day business owners were able to apply for the Business Emergency Gap Assistance Program. It allows for business owners with less than $1 million in damage to receive up to 20% of their net uncovered damages or $20,000, whichever is less. “We certainly understand it’s not going to be enough money for most folks to get reopened all by itself, but we’re working to help folks to the extent we can and to help as many folks as we can,” Brett Long, the Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Economic Development, said. The state said the turnaround process will take 7-10 days, and most delays are caused by incomplete applications, so make sure everything is properly filled out. “The damages have to have been physical damages, so this isn’t a program that’s meant to help people who have had revenue losses or a shortage of working capital. They really have to be able to show they’ve had physical damages to their business property,” Long said. In addition to grants to help those affected, the state named Doug Farnham as Chief Recovery Officer to help oversee recovery efforts. “The short-term is really making sure that the people directly impacted, displaced that don’t have a place to live right now, or their house is being repaired that we really address and help those people in the short term,” Farnham said. “Long-term, we need to work with municipalities. We need to work with other state agencies and housing boards to make sure when we rebuild, we rebuild smarter,” he said. Farnham said the amount of federal money the state is receiving will be crucial for the next time a storm of this magnitude hits.”Right now, we have more federal money coming in for infrastructure improvements and roads and water systems than we’ve ever had in the past, so we can really use this as an opportunity to make our communities stronger and more resistant to flooding in the future,” Farnham said. For the assistance program, there is also $1 million set aside for farms and agriculture-related businesses that were affected, and those applications will be handled by the Agency of Agriculture.
MONTPELIER, Vt. —
Thursday was the first day business owners were able to apply for the Business Emergency Gap Assistance Program. It allows for business owners with less than $1 million in damage to receive up to 20% of their net uncovered damages or $20,000, whichever is less.
“We certainly understand it’s not going to be enough money for most folks to get reopened all by itself, but we’re working to help folks to the extent we can and to help as many folks as we can,” Brett Long, the Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Economic Development, said.
The state said the turnaround process will take 7-10 days, and most delays are caused by incomplete applications, so make sure everything is properly filled out.
“The damages have to have been physical damages, so this isn’t a program that’s meant to help people who have had revenue losses or a shortage of working capital. They really have to be able to show they’ve had physical damages to their business property,” Long said.
In addition to grants to help those affected, the state named Doug Farnham as Chief Recovery Officer to help oversee recovery efforts.
“The short-term is really making sure that the people directly impacted, displaced that don’t have a place to live right now, or their house is being repaired that we really address and help those people in the short term,” Farnham said. “Long-term, we need to work with municipalities. We need to work with other state agencies and housing boards to make sure when we rebuild, we rebuild smarter,” he said.
Farnham said the amount of federal money the state is receiving will be crucial for the next time a storm of this magnitude hits.
“Right now, we have more federal money coming in for infrastructure improvements and roads and water systems than we’ve ever had in the past, so we can really use this as an opportunity to make our communities stronger and more resistant to flooding in the future,” Farnham said.
For the assistance program, there is also $1 million set aside for farms and agriculture-related businesses that were affected, and those applications will be handled by the Agency of Agriculture.
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