Deadline approaching for city of Pueblo small company grants
A couple hundred modest enterprises in decide on locations of Pueblo are suitable to acquire a share of just about $300,000 in federal COVID-19-similar grants, but the deadline for expressing curiosity is Friday.
Some places to eat, outlets and other enterprises can get grants ranging from $100 to extra than $7,000 distributed by the town from the inflow of federal American Rescue Prepare Act monies.
The city’s finance department needs to know by Friday if the corporations want to accept the grants.
The enterprises require to be inside of “qualified census tracts” in Pueblo, which are parts of the city exactly where much more than half of homes are decrease income. The income threshold is calculated from the county’s place median earnings and relies upon on how many people live in the domestic.
Most of the downtown area is in a competent census tract, as is the East Facet and components of Bessemer.
Distributing federal funding to only organizations in qualifying regions adheres to the federal government’s suggestions for how the grants ought to be dispersed for the reason that the reduce-cash flow neighborhoods were being disproportionately afflicted by the pandemic, Pueblo Director of Public Affairs Haley Sue Robinson claimed.
The qualifying firms for the grant are also limited by how substantially business they did in between October 2021 and June 2022, in the course of which they should have recorded no more than $200,000 in gross sales. Qualifying firms also require to have sent their income tax returns and paid out sales tax on time throughout the nine-month period of time.
The size of the grant is dependent on the business’ reported profits to the city, Robinson said.
If not all of the firms react — as of Monday, Chief of Staff Laura Solano stated that approximately 60 corporations experienced contact the city to acquire the grant funding — any undistributed funds can be reappropriated by metropolis council.
Close to $10 million of the full $36.7 million continues to be to be allocated. The funding wants to be selected by the conclusion of 2024 and used by the finish of 2026, according to the background paper for the business enterprise grant resolution.
City council handed the resolution authorizing the grants on Jan. 9, unanimously and without having dialogue.
Solano said at that conference that council president Heather Graham collaborated with town team for months to get the ARPA grants for small firms and place the measure up for a council vote.
The town notified the 171 businesses by sending a letter shortly following council permitted the resolution. Company entrepreneurs will have to have to call the city’s finance office by Friday.
To get the grant funding, the organizations also will want to get a exclusive identification range from the federal governing administration and electronically fill out some expected paperwork.
Anna Lynn Winfrey covers politics for the Pueblo Chieftain. She can be arrived at at [email protected] or on Twitter, @annalynnfrey.
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