FILE PHOTO — From left to right, county commissioners Gary Stamper, Edna Fund, and Bobby Jackson attend a mayors meeting Jan. 3, 2020, at the Lewis County Courthouse in Chehalis.
A series of grants funded through the Washington state Department of Commerce’s coronavirus relief funds are set to be allocated to local businesses who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As of last Wednesday’s weekly Economic Recovery Forum, Meri Hamre of the Lewis County Economic Development Council Board said the grant has received 19 applicants.
A committee composed of members from the Lewis County Together team and Lewis County EDC will review the applications and ultimately award the grants. According to the application, businesses have until 4:00 p.m. on July 13 to apply.
“We’re looking for businesses that have either not been helped enough, by the other grant processes, or, frankly, didn’t get any help at all from PPP, Working Washington, or those things,” Committee member Larry McGee said. “This is countywide and we’re excited to get started.”
Businesses around the county will be awarded a total of $200,000 in grants, set aside from the Coronavirus Relief Funds by the Board of County Commissioners.
According to Tamara Hayes, who has been working with Lewis County Together to provide assistance to members of the business community impacted by the pandemic, those interested in applying can do so on the Lewis County Together homepage.
“It’s a very user-friendly application, but it’s really great even on your phone,” Hamre said. “You don’t have to have a PC, laptop, iPad or whatever, you can do it right there on your phone and it works really well.”
Annalee Tobey, who helped establish Lewis County Together, said she’s pleased with how the awareness about the application has spread so far, but hopes to see it reach more members of the business community county-wide.
“Just yesterday, I had several people reaching out asking questions,” Tobey said. “We really want to make sure East Lewis County, the word gets out there as well.”
Toledo Mayor Steve Dobosh said that businesses from his community are aware of the grants and he would be passing along information to assist whoever should want to apply in doing so.
According to Tobey, in order for a business to be eligible to apply for the grants, they need to be located in Lewis County, have no more than 20 employees and have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Those are kind of the three bullets that we’ve been trying to accompany with information in regards to the grants,” Tobey said.
From the perspective of Lewis County Commissioner Edna Fund, the group that has been selected to serve on the committee has continued to assist the county in its response to COVID-19.
“I am just over the top in debt to those folks,” Fund said. “Those folks put the pedal to the metal at the very beginning and got Lewis County Together … we just moved lightning speed.”
With those involved in Lewis County Together now involved in the committee tasked with awarding the grant dollars to small businesses, Fund thinks the impact people like Tobey, McGee, Hayes and others have made is only going to be accelerated.
“They’d do anything to help our businesses,” Fund said. “It’s a big countywide team that they’ve developed.”
