The City of Delaware’s COVID-19 & Spring Flood Small Business Recovery Grant Program this week surpassed $50,000 in grants for local small business relief.
City Council approved the program May 26 and funded it with $100,000 from the City’s Economic Development Reserve fund. The grant program provides an outright reimbursement for eligible local businesses dealing with the one-two punch of the pandemic and the May floods.
A total of 25 small businesses throughout the City have applied for the grants. The City has funded 21 with the other four in process. Applicants are using grant money for costs incurred for such things as masks, hand sanitizer and safety barriers; and for May 19 flood expenses, including for clean-up and destroyed inventory and furniture.
“This program has been incredibly impactful in helping our small businesses with some of the extraneous costs they had to absorb due to COVID-19 and the May 19 flood,” said Sean
Hughes, Economic Development Director for the City of Delaware.
Because of the continued need in the business community, the City extended the application deadline to Friday, July 31 The program guidelines and application can be found at www.delawaremeansbusiness.com.