Douglas County Commissioners to allocate additional $350,000 to COVID relief grant for twenty-two more businesses
Written by Patrick Schneider on December 31, 2020
Douglas County, Ore. – The Douglas County Board of Commissioners have announced that they have awarded and distributed the $1,470,000 in grant funds from the Douglas County COVID-19 Business Grant Program to 103 small local businesses. The 1.47 million in grant funds were part of the Federal CARES Act Coronavirus Business Relief Fund that the State passed through to the individual counties for disbursement in mid-November in to support small Douglas County businesses that were impacted by COVID-19.
Because the funding received from the State from the Federal CARES Act fell short of covering the relief applications received from local businesses, Douglas County Commissioners decided to allocate an additional $350,000 to provide COVID relief grant dollars to twenty-two more businesses.
Douglas County Commissioners will cover the fees charged by CCD for administration separately rather than withdraw funds from the grant, so 100% of this funding went directly to our local businesses.
County Commissioners have completed another business grant program, to help local businesses that are required to have an environmental health license with the county in order to operate. The County Commissioners allocated up to $350,000 in county grant funding and offered an opportunity for those businesses to apply and receive a $500 grant, as a refund for the cost of their 2020 health license. Plus, the Commissioners have decided to waive the 2021 environmental health licensing fees, and have refunded or applied payment to 2022 licensing for those businesses that already paid for their 2021 licenses.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Douglas County Board of Commissioners have made protecting our local businesses a top priority. We have worked hard to help keep our business communities as healthy as we can, despite the State’s mandates. We have provided daily updates with accurate information and links to available assistance programs, all while encouraging our citizens and businesses to stay healthy by managing their personal and business health during COVID. Having the ability to distribute and then add to the available relief funds for our local businesses, who are in dire need, is one of the many ways your Board of Commissioners are helping. I want to personally thank my fellow Commissioners for going above and beyond the call of duty this year to support our local businesses. We are very aware that many of our local businesses have been tremendously impacted by COVID, and we are thankful that we have the ability to bring desperately needed financial relief to them,” Commissioner Chris Boice said.
Douglas County was one of the first counties, if not the first in Oregon to launch a business relief program. The Federal CARES Act grant dollars were divided up amongst the 36 Oregon counties, and each county is responsible for establishing a local application process and allocation program.
CCD Business Development Corporation is a private nonprofit Oregon corporation which was formed in 1971. CCD enjoys a national reputation as one of the leading economic development organizations in the United States and is the federally recognized Economic Development District for Coos, Curry and Douglas counties.
CCD Assistant Director, Bryan Sykes added, “We were very impressed with how quickly the Douglas County Commissioners got the ball rolling for these grants (the first to do so), for their diligence in making sure the program helped as many local businesses as possible, and for graciously adding additional grant dollars to the program to make sure that as many qualifying applicants as possible received some funding.”