Fifty Normal businesses received grants totaling $450,000 from The Town of Normal’s Small Business Relief Program to assist with COVID-19 impacts.
“As a long-standing business owner, I know how important these funds are in sustaining many small businesses during these unprecedented times. I proudly support all efforts to bring financial assistance back to our community,” said Mayor Chris Koos.
The Town granted the money through the State’s Local CURE (Coronavirus Urgent Remediation Emergency) Economic Support Grant Program, a federally funded effort from the Coronavirus Relief Fund. The Town opened applications for local businesses on Dec. 1.
“We had 67 businesses apply for grants,” said Eric Hanson, Assistant City Manager. “All told, they asked for $760,045 in assistance, more than $300,000 than we had to award.”
Funds were requested in the following categories:
1. Operational Assistance Grant: e.g., rent, mortgage or utilities, etc.
2. Digital and Marketing Support Grant: e.g., social media marketing, point of sale systems, website enhancements, etc.
3. Business Modification Grant: e.g., building modifications, additional cleaning supplies, etc.
Businesses could apply for up to $15,000 total, or $5,000 in each grant category. Grant awards
ranged from a minimum of $807 to the $15,000 maximum. The average grant award was
$9,000.
Applicants self-selected into six business types (see chart below), and grants were awarded across all six categories. Restaurants received the highest allocation of funds, with $192,755 awarded in grants, or 68 percent of the funds requested in that category.
The following businesses received the highest grant awards: Destihl Beer Hall, DP Dough, Los Potrillos, Moe’s Southwest Grill, The Original Pancake House, The Rock and Windy City
Wieners.
Grant awards were made to the following types of businesses:
Type of Business # of applicants: Total Requests: Money awarded:
Restaurant 20 $283,500 $192,755
Professional Services 12 $104,075 $55,346
Personal Services 8 $83,450 $33,141
Retail 8 $73,970 $48,373
Hospitality 4 $46,000 $19,868
Other 15 $169,050 $100,517
TOTALS: 67 $760,045 $450,000
Several businesses who originally applied for the Town’s SBRP received funds from the Business Interruption Grant (BIG) from the State of Illinois making them ineligible for additional assistance through the SBRP. When combined with the State’s recently distributed BIG grants, the SBRP grants helped give more than $1 million back to Town of Normal businesses. Some businesses who applied did not receive awards because they did not meet the State’s
eligibility requirements, or they did not receive a full award because of documentation
requirements.
“The state’s required documentation is immense. We talked with applicants to ensure business owners provided the paperwork needed,” said Hanson. “Applicants not receiving money unfortunately couldn’t provide necessary documentation. We also saw this from interested businesses. We had 90 businesses express interest, but only 67 applied. In those cases, the state’s required documentation was too large an obstacle for the businesses to overcome.