City of Bonney Lake Offering Grants for Small Businesses

Updated (Aug 4th, 2020): This blog post now includes the links to the applications of both programs. 

Bonney Lake — At the July 21, 2020 City of Bonney Lake Council Workshop one of the agenda items had particular interest from us here at The Chamber Collective. The City Council was motioning to authorize Mayor Johnsons allocation of $300,000 from the city’s portion of the CARES Act Funding for Bonney Lake small business and residential Utility Assistance Programs.

Under the CARES Act, the Department of Commerce has awarded the City $631,800 of grant funds to cover various eligible costs that are incurred as a result of COVID-19. Examples of current eligible expenses include health and safety supplies at city facilities, the senior center meal program and hazard pay. Additionally, Mayor Johnson proposed allocating up to $300,000 of grant funds to provide assistance to businesses and residents that have been impacted by COVID-19. These two programs will be detailed below – 1) Bonney Lake Small Business Assistance Program and 2) Bonney Lake Residential Utility Assistance Program. With the closure of city facilities to the public, the application process will be online, however, utility customers may request a hard copy by contacting utilities. Other area jurisdictions have created similar programs, which were used as a guide in the development of these two programs.

City of Bonney Lake Small Business Assistance Program

The City of Bonney Lake Small Business Assistance Program supports our local businesses and the economy. The program is funded with $100,000 from a portion of the City’s CARES Act stimulus package distribution.

All eligible businesses submitting a complete and timely application will have a chance to receive a grant of up to $1,500 until all funds are exhausted. A total of $100,000 of funding is available. As funding is limited, all applicants may not receive a grant. In the event that the total number of qualified applicants exceed the amount of funding available, the City will randomly select grant recipients using a lottery drawing.

Eligible Businesses

In order to be eligible for the City of Bonney Lake Small Business Assistance Program, businesses must meet the following requirements:

• Physical (brick and mortar) location in the City of Bonney Lake. You can verify if your address is within the city limits here. (link to city map)
• Been in operation and licensed within the City of Bonney Lake before March 1, 2020.
• Have a current City of Bonney Lake Business License.
• The business must be a for-profit business.
• The business had 10 or fewer full time equivalent employees (FTE) as of March 1, 2020. To determine the number of FTEs employed, for each employee, enter the average number of hours paid per week, divide by 40, and round the total to the nearest tenth. The maximum for each employee is capped at 1.0.
• The businesses is not owned, or partially owned, by employees or public officials associated with the City of Bonney Lake.
• Demonstrate a financial loss due to COVID-19.

Eligible Expenses

Funds may be used for the following:

• Retaining and/or supporting employees, payroll and benefits
• Restoring financial resiliency
• Business rent or mortgage payments
• Addressing temporary COVID-19 related restrictions on business activity
• Increasing technology capacity to enable alternative work forms or service delivery
• Creating new marketing campaigns
• Revising business plans
• Paying vendor invoices
• Facility cleaning/restoration

Documentation of expenses will be required to be submitted if a grant is awarded, and eligible expenses must be incurred within the time period of March 1, 2020 to September 7, 2020. If you’ve received government program funding, the City of Bonney Lake Small Business Assistance grant must cover other expenses.

City of Bonney Lake Residential Utility Assistance Program

This program provides financial assistance to Bonney Lake water and sewer service area residential customers. The program is funded with $100,000 from a portion of the City’s CARES Act stimulus package distribution.

All eligible residential utility customers submitting a complete and timely application will have a chance to receive a grant of up to $500 until all funds are exhausted. A total of $100,000 of funding is available. Funding is limited. All applicants may not receive a grant.

Eligible Utility Customers

In order to be eligible for the City of Bonney Lake Residential Utility Assistance Program, utility customers must meet the following requirements:

• Address must be within the Bonney Lake water and sewer service area.
• Utility account must be in good standing as of March 1, 2020.
• Have been affected by COVID-19.
• Utility customer must be eligible for and be willing to set up a utility payment plan for any remaining balance not covered by the Residential Utility Assistance Program.

Applications for the Small Business Assistance Program and the Residential Utility Assistance Program will be accepted starting at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, August 3, 2020

Applications for the Small Business Assistance Program are due by Monday, August 10, 2020. Applications for the Residential Utility Assistance Program will be accepted on a rolling basis until the funds have been exhausted. Applications may be submitted at any time – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The City of Bonney Lake will set up a seamless document for both programs to apply with.

Link to the program applications:

https://www.ci.bonney-lake.wa.us/news/what_s_new/residential_and_business_assistance_programs

For questions about the programs contact Leslie Harris at harrisl@cobl.us

Listen to the Audio of the City Council Workshop HERE