Volusia County unveiled preliminary plans last Tuesday for a grant program to help small businesses reopen their doors and rebound from the economic devastation brought on by coronavirus crisis. On Tuesday, officials said stimulating the local economy by helping small businesses get back on their feet would be a worthy use for some of the county’s federal funds.

Volusia County Receives Funds for Grant Program to Help Small Businesses

Volusia County received relief funds from the U.S. Treasury Department last week. While the details are still being worked out, the county’s preliminary proposal includes setting aside a portion of the relief money to fund grants for local businesses in Volusia County with up to 25 employees.

“We worked very closely with the cities and our practitioners and stakeholders in economic development to come up with a process where we think we can help them to move forward,” Volusia County Economic Development Director Helga van Eckert said during Tuesday’s County Council meeting.

A provision of the federal CARES Act, counties with populations in excess of 500,000 qualify for the direct federal COVID-19 relief funds. Volusia County is one of 12 counties in Florida to qualify. The County Council and county staff talked about how the money will be used. Pursuant to federal guidelines, the money can be spent to cover expenses that are directly attributable to the health crisis and aren’t accounted for in the county’s budget. That could cover a lot of things, such as medical and protective supplies, food delivery, rental assistance for residents, disinfection of public areas and facilities, expenses to improve telework capabilities for public employees and other costs incurred by county government related to the pandemic.

How to Apply for the Volusia County Small Business Grant

Volusia County is awarding a $3,000 grant for small businesses that have 1-25 employees and have been effected by the OCVID-19 response and shutdowns.

The application will be launched online here and is expected to be provided sometime this week.

Qualifiers for this program include:

• Business has a physical, ‘bricks-and-mortar’ business location.
• Business has no more than 25 employees.
• Business is not a publicly traded company.
• Business is not a tax exempt organization.
• Business is licensed to operate in Volusia County and/or the municipality.
• Business provides a copy of its business tax receipt effective December 01, 2019.
• Business has an “active” state business registration from Florida Division of Corporations (if required).
• Business was operational and actively conducting business in Volusia County on or before December 1, 2019.

If you qualify and intend to apply, start now to gather pertinent information. Please click here for additional details.

County Council members added a couple of additional items to the priority list – expanded COVID-19 testing and coronavirus messaging to targeted vulnerable populations, such as seniors and minorities. But everyone agreed that using some of the money to provide economic support to small businesses suffering from coronavirus-related employment interruptions was a high priority.

“All of these kinds of things can be put in place, but they get put in place at a cost,” said van Eckert. “That’s why we see this grant opportunity as the perfect format to allow us to cover the costs associated with helping the businesses to reopen in a manner that protects them, their employees and our citizenry.”