The Iberian Pig in Decatur
By Zachary Hansen
Decatur recently completed its second round of emergency relief grants to small businesses to help them cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The DeKalb County city awarded $525,000 to 29 businesses, and the average grant size was $18,100, according to a news release. The city previously awarded $1.2 million worth of federal funds to its small businesses and nonprofits through various relief programs.
Decatur’s most recent grant recipients were chosen from a pool of 42 applicants. To qualify, businesses must have no more than 50 full-time employees, must operate in the city’s limits and must not have received funds from the city’s first round of grants.
The businesses applied for a combined $750,000 worth of grants, so a blind lottery was used to select the 29 recipients, the release said. A list of grant recipients was not provided.
“Given the challenges so many of our small businesses are facing, the opportunity to provide additional relief is very meaningful,” Decatur Mayor Patti Garrett said in the release. “We don’t know when this pandemic or the economic hardship caused by it will end, but we can certainly do our part to continue supporting the businesses that play such a critical role in defining our community.”
The city’s first small business relief effort took place last April, when Decatur awarded $560,000 in emergency loans through the Paycheck Protection Program. Decatur was later allocated $2.9 million of Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds.
Those funds backed the first round of small business grants, totaling $500,000, along with $300,000 worth of nonprofit grants. The rest of the funds went toward employee expenses and pandemic-related purchases, such as personal protective equipment and technology expenses.
Read the original story on AJC.com.
