Stillwater Offering Grants To Help Small Businesses During Pandemic

The City of Stillwater and Stillwater Chamber of Commerce is offering small businesses struggling because of the COVID-19 pandemic a lifeline.

On Monday, the city council approved $500,000 dollars of its CARES Act reimbursement for the Stillwater Small Business Assistance Program.

“We went live at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, so we are a little over a day and a half into this and we've already got about 60 applications,” said Justin Minges, Stillwater Chamber of Commerce president and CEO.

Businesses can apply for $5,000 on a first come, first serve basis.

“If a restaurant is thinking outdoor dining might not be in my future after October, November, hopefully this allows them to think about how they set up their facility,” said Minges.

To apply, businesses have to meet the following requirements

•           Grants up to $5,000 for qualifying small businesses

•           Fewer than 50 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees and annual income for 2019 less than $10 million

•           The business must be located within the Stillwater corporate city limits

•           The business must provide evidence of at least a 25% revenue shortfall between March through May 2020 compared to designated periods from 2019-2020

“I would assume we are probably going to have 100 applications in our file by Friday,” said Minges.

Once the applications are vetted, they will go before the city council.

That could happen as early as next week.

Click here to apply.