NOBLESVILLE, Ind.–46 businesses in Noblesville will be getting money from the city to help them deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Noblesville Mayor Chris Jensen says the city is giving $250,000 to them through what he calls the Noblesville Small Business Resilience Grant.
“It really was a matter of us taking a look at who is going to help save our community. Noblesville is built on the backs of a lot of small businesses,” Jensen said in an interview with 93 WIBC’s Tony Katz Thursday morning.
Jensen said the money is coming from the city’s rainy day fund.
“We have a healthy rainy day fund because we have been fiscally conservative for the last several years. We felt like no one can deny that it is “raining” now, so we decided to dip into our rainy day fund. We had 209 (businesses) apply in a matter of about 72 hours requesting about $1.9 million, which is mind-blowing to me. It was shocking to see what the need was,” says Jensen.
He says there were several factors that played a role in them choosing the 46 businesses.
“We judged that based on the number of employees impacted, the overall impact in the last month that COVID-19 has had on their individual business, and we took a look at their community involvement. We also looked at what they were doing as individuals to try and weather this storm.
The grant program intends to help businesses that may not be eligible for other assistance or that have immediate needs beyond that which can be met by other federal and state assistance programs. Depending on the need, the grants will provide up to $10,000 per small business. The money will be sent out no later than April 17. Additional money may be awarded on an as-needed basis.
Jensen says employers are anxious to get back to work, but they want to be safe as well.
“If we give you up to $10,000, we know that may be enough for rent up to a month or two at most, but there is a lot more assistance they are going to need to get their doors back open. We know that it’s not going to go back to normal overnight. We have to take our guidance from the Governor (Eric Holcomb) and from the President. The Governor and his team are incredibly responsive. We, like the Governor, are following public health expert guidelines and guidance,” says Jensen.
The Noblesville Small Business Resilience Grant program went into effect in late March.
