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City Businesses Get More Time to Apply for COVID Impact Money. County Applications Soar.
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By David Taub, Senior Reporter
Published 5 years ago on
June 8, 2020

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Fresno businesses now have until the end of Friday to submit applications to receive up to a $10,000 grant.

The city extended its Save Our Small Businesses Act application process for one week.

This is the second round of funding for the program. Councilman Mike Karbassi, who helped author the program, said the extension will allow more businesses to apply.

“There was some confusion because some people still didn’t realize they have to reapply. So we’ve had employees going all around the city going to small businesses and asking them to please apply,” Karbassi said.

Second Round of Funding

The first round, using $750,000 from the general fund was a forgivable 0% interest loan. Using a lottery system, the city awarded 118 small businesses $5,000 (for businesses five employees or fewer) and $10,000 (six or more).

This time, the city is using $2 million from federal funding as a grant — meaning no repayment is required. Grants will still use the same $10,000/$5,000 format.

There are more restrictions the second time around. Karbassi said this was to prioritize businesses that were deemed non-essential, and could not open because of city orders related to the pandemic.

The restrictions include the type of business eligible, not receiving relief funds from another source, and experience at least a 25% loss of revenue because of COVID-19.

“There were some businesses that were totally shut down and couldn’t open at all. I would say they were hit a lot harder because they couldn’t bring in any income,” Karbassi said. “The main goal of the Save Our Small Businesses Act is to actually save businesses. We want to make sure we offer that lifeboat to those businesses that were the hardest hit.”

Eligibility information and applications can be found here.

County Program Lottery Today

A similar program administered by Fresno County received 1,359 applicants for 1,000 available grants, county officials said Monday.

As the application deadline neared last week,  only 650 businesses had sought out the funds, the county said. In the waning days of the application period, however, the number of applications more than doubled.

A county spokesman says a lottery will take place today to select the businesses that will receive grants of up to $5,000.

Funding for the county’s $5 million program is coming from the federal CARES Act passed by Congress in March.

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David Taub,
Senior Reporter
Curiosity drives David Taub. The award-winning journalist might be shy, but feels mighty with a recorder in his hand. He doesn't see it his job to "hold public officials accountable," but does see it to provide readers (and voters) the information needed to make intelligent choices. Taub has been honored with several writing awards from the California News Publishers Association. He's just happy to have his stories read. Joining GV Wire in 2016, Taub covers politics, government and elections, mainly in the Fresno/Clovis area. He also writes columns about local eateries (Appetite for Fresno), pro wrestling (Off the Bottom Rope), and media (Media Man). Prior to joining the online news source, Taub worked as a radio producer for KMJ and PowerTalk 96.7 in Fresno. He also worked as an assignment editor for KCOY-TV in Santa Maria, California, and KSEE-TV in Fresno. He has also worked behind the scenes for several sports broadcasts, including the NCAA basketball tournament, and the Super Bowl. When not spending time with his family, Taub loves to officially score Fresno Grizzlies games. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Taub is a die-hard Giants and 49ers fan. He graduated from the University of Michigan with dual degrees in communications and political science. Go Blue! You can contact David at 559-492-4037 or at Send an Email

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