Some confusion regarding grant money for small businesses was cleared up during Monday’s Stoddard County Commission conference call.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act created a Coronavirus Relief Fund of $150 billion that was divided among the states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories and tribal governments. The state of Missouri allocated $3.4 million in funds to Stoddard County earlier this month.
“When some of us business owners joined the call, we were originally told that the $3.4 million grant was only going to be used for government entities,” American Steakhouse co-owner Misti McBride said Monday during the conference call. “I’m assuming that that was the understanding of the commissioners and other officials. We, some of the business owners, found a seven-page document on the treasury.gov site that listed on Page 5 … it very specifically talked about opportunities for small business losses due to COVID-19. That was brought to the commissioners’ attention and thankfully, I sincerely appreciate the effort that has been put in most recently to look into that.”
Presiding Commissioner Danny Talkington said, “the original document that I read did not have that until it started asking the frequently asked questions. I think that’s the seven-page document you’re referring to. … That’s when they gave the answer yes, but it didn’t define what a small business was and it didn’t define what all expenses could be, and that’s where we had the delay in it.”
The commission has been working on understanding the language of the federal document.
“We’ve been working with an attorney on getting a form drawn up that will allow for us to release the information to the small businesses as to what expenses can be reimbursed in the form of a grant and how that program will work,” Talkington said.
BA Promotions and Marketing owner Traci Christian said, “I appreciate that you all finally looked into that. I’m pretty upset that we had to take three weeks to get to this point, but I’m glad to know that you all are moving forward and going to help out our local economy and our local businesses that are suffering. I appreciate that. Thank you.”
Scott Spitzer, of Paradise Lounge and The Other Side restaurant in Bernie, asked “is this going to be like the funding before because there are a lot of businesses that fell through the cracks and did not qualify for any assistance so far?”
Some of the county’s small businesses were told that if they were a self-proprietor or an LLC or a S corporation and the owner didn’t draw a salary or receive a payroll check, their income wouldn’t qualify for the PPP program, according to Talkington.
Relief fund money will not be used to pay employees but will help reimburse small businesses “the costs of business interruption caused by required closures,” according to the CARES Act article “Coronavirus Relief Fund Frequently Asked Questions” found on the Missouri State Treasurer’s website.
“We’ve looked at what a couple communities have done,” Talkington said. “I think some of their definitions of small business (are) a little too restrictive because some of our small businesses have more employees than what (those communities considered to be a small business). We’re trying to get that clarified to where we’ll have something for you that we can get out for maybe Tuesday or Wednesday of this week and get it out to the individuals to where you’ve got something you can start working on to submit back to the commissioners for a small business grant. … We’ve got to have those definitions so that you know what you’re applying for.”
Government building to reopen
The commission met with the county’s elected officials later Monday and announced the government building will open from 8 a.m. until noon May 30 for early voting for the June 2 election.
The building will open it doors to the public and resume normal business practices at 8:30 a.m. Monday, June 1 and all offices will be full-staffed.
Shop Local campaign
Dexter Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Alisha Trammell addressed the commission regarding a campaign to encourage residents to shop locally.
“If I have anybody out there that’s not specifically a business owner, I really want to take this time to encourage you and our businesses owners that we really need to support our local businesses right now,” Trammell said. “I really want to encourage you before going outside your community or out of the county to look at what services and products that we have here locally. I can almost guarantee you there’s a business in our county that can take care of you. I think that is part of our goal here … is to create that dialogue, encourage people to get out there and support our local businesses because they do need us now more than ever.”
Trammell said she have been reaching out to small businesses to help her develop a campaign that supports local businesses.
“I’m having a little bit of a struggle with it,” she said, “just knowing that there are so many businesses that are suffering that have taken a financial loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is me asking all businesses if you would reach out to me. I want to hear from you. I want to hear your ideas for a support local campaign. You may think your ideas are a little bit small but that may be the piece that we need to pull off a great support local campaign. It’s going to take all of us together. So please, please call me (573-624-7458) or e-mail me (info@dexterchamber.com) anytime. I sincerely want to hear from every business. You don’t have to be a chamber member. This is a community wide effort. We really want to see all our businesses succeed.”
Trammell said the chamber, Historic Downtown Dexter Association and the tourism committee have already agreed to combine some funds to pay for this program.
Stay-at-home order
McBride asked the commissioners, provided there are no more spikes or increases in COVID-19 cases, “are we looking from a commissioner’s standpoint to lift the restrictions at the end of these last 30 days?”
Talkington said, “Our restrictions now are the same as the governor. We cannot do less than the governor. … Whatever the governor does in his next release sometime toward the end of next week will be what we’ll take a look at and probably will follow. (That) is what we did this last time.
“I don’t know what the governor’s going to do. I’m not privy to anything that he’s thinking. I’m not privy to any special heads-up that this is going to be completely released or it’s going to be continued. I don’t know that, so it’s difficult to answer your question.”