The deadline for Kenai small businesses and nonprofits to apply for City of Kenai Relief and Recovery Grants will hit this Friday, June 19.
The City Council, on June 3, established the grant program to distribute up to $3 million in federal CARES Act funding to small businesses and nonprofits in the community that are trying to recover from the economic hit of the COVID-19 public health emergency. The application period opened on June 5 and closes June 19. The distribution of funds could start before the end of the month.
Grants to businesses will range from $2,500 to $10,000 each, depending on the size of the business. The grants to nonprofits will range from $10,000 up to $50,000, also depending on the size of the operation.
City Manager Paul Ostrander: “The guidance that was provided, the original intent of the CARES Act was to get this money out quickly, to get it out to benefit the small businesses, non-profits, and individuals in your communities. So, the city of Kenai, rather than trying to focus on how or why we can get this money to fill the city coffers, really took it immediately and said we need to follow the intent of the CARES Act and get this money out quickly, we need to benefit those folks who have been impacted by COVID-19. As soon as we got notice of the amount of our grant, we took an ordinance to the council – we introduced it and heard it in one meeting. That’s not something we typically do. In two weeks, we put together this program that is intended to provide grants for small businesses and non-profits in the city of Kenai.”
The $3 million will come from the $7.7 million state allocation to Kenai from Alaska’s share of federal CARES Act funding. The City Council on May 20 approved a spending plan for the funding, including using some of the money to cover the payroll cost of first-responder personnel.
The grants can be used to help businesses and nonprofits deal with the loss of income due to mandatory shutdowns; inventory loss; additional operating expenses of reopening services to the public; costs of protecting staff, customers or the public; or other economic impacts.
