Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
As of the deadline on Friday, Oct. 30, 55 businesses and 42 homeowners or renters had submitted applications for monetary assistance from the CARES-Act program, which aims to help those who suffered financial hardship as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
This according to Property Appraiser Angela Gray, who serves on the CARES Act Committee, the Jefferson County Commission-appointed group that is more or less overseeing the money’s distributions, in conjunction with the consultant firm of Government Services Group (GSG) and the Monticello-Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce.
“We will be evaluating whether or not funding is still available to assist two additional groups,” Gray emailed late Friday, Oct. 30.
The two groups, she said, would be business startups that hadn’t been open for a year when the pandemic struck, and hence lacked a way of showing losses compared with the previous year, and not-for-profit/nonprofit organizations.
Gray said her committee was in the process of working out the details with the GSG consultant and the findings would be reported to the Board of County Commissioners on Thursday evening, Nov. 5.
She praised the work of Renee Long and Katrina Walton of the Monticello-Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce, who helped process the applications and provided assistance to applicants with the paperwork.
“They went above and beyond to reach out to the community and help the individuals complete the applications during our 30-day window,” Gray said. “I attribute our high participation numbers to their dedication and hard work.”
All told, Jefferson County is eligible to receive roughly $1.6 million in CARES-Act funding to help local businesses and homeowners that were adversely affected by the pandemic, with $1,378,501.52 of the money allocated for small business assistance and $300,725 for individual assistance.
The money is part of the total $2,658,750 that Jefferson County is eligible to receive as its portion of the $1.275 billion that the federal government allocated to Florida’s 55 counties with populations of less than 50,000 residents for economic recovery.
The county earlier received its first installment of $706,127, or 25 percent of the total allocation, which amount was largely distributed among the community’s emergency first responders for direct or indirect costs incurred because of the pandemic.
This second phase involves businesses that suffered financial losses because of the pandemic and homeowners and renters who are behind on their mortgages or utility bills because of job losses tied to the pandemic.
For more information about the program, call the chamber at (850) 997-5552 or GSG at (850) 888-8776 or toll free at (866) 986-7569.