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County businesses take advantage of stipend programs

A total of 48 small business owners in Crook County have taken advantage of the state’s COVID-19 Business Relief Interruption fund. The fund is part of a suite of stipend programs that made use of CARES Act money to assist Wyoming’s businesses as they were forced to either change their operations or close down in response to the pandemic.

Crook County’s applicants are among 4211 statewide applications totaling $104.6 million that were submitted after the fund was launched on June 8. This, according to a press release from the Wyoming Business Council, exceeded initial expectations.

However, all eligible requests will be paid thanks to a recent infusion of $50 million by Governor Mark Gordon. This doubled the initial size of the fund.

“After Governor Mark Gordon signed the legislation into law on May 20, we were able to quickly develop rules and execute a program to help those businesses hit hardest during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic response,” said CEO Josh Dorrell.

“This initial $100 million infusion will help keep small businesses open and workers employed, bolstering Wyoming’s overall economy.”  

Preference for the funding, which Dorrell described as “a lifeline to our main streets” when the program was launched in June, was given to those who may have “fallen through the cracks” of the Paycheck Protection Program.

Applicants had to be headquartered in Wyoming, employ 50 or fewer people and to have established their business before any public health orders were issued in Wyoming. The amount a business received included lost business revenue and COVID-19 related expenses minus the cost savings realized as a result of closures.

The Business Council is processing the remaining Interruption Fund applications as quickly as possible. Businesses can expect to receive payment 21 business days after their application is reviewed.

The average time between when an application is reviewed and funds are delivered to business owners has been about ten days.

The individual business payments have posted on the WyOpen.gov website created by State Auditor Kristi Racines to provide the public with easy access to state of Wyoming expenditures. The Business Council is still processing applications and expects to have final numbers in a couple of weeks.

Two additional programs are expected to come available soon to assist businesses through the CARES Act funding. The Ongoing Relief Fund is expected to open this month; it will be for businesses up to 100 employees that were required to close due to state health orders and will provide a maximum of $300,000 to cover expenditures and expenses.

The Coronavirus Mitigation Stipend Program is open to businesses regardless of size to cover COVID-related expenses up to a maximum of $500,000. The bills creating these funds were intentionally written to provide broad coverage, Dorrell said.