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March 20, 2023

The Chestertown Spy

An Educational News Source for Chestertown Maryland

Commerce Commerce Homepage News COVID-19

Last Chance to Apply as Talbot County Allocates More Funds for CARES Grants

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Those businesses and nonprofit organizations that have not already received a grant of up to $10,000 from the Talbot CARES Emergency Relief Small Business Grant program have one last chance to apply.

“Talbot County has reinvested more than $1.1 million of its CARES funding into the business community,” Cassandra Vanhooser, director of the Talbot County Department of Economic Development and Tourism, said in a statement. “With the files we currently have under review, we are on track to distribute the entire $1.2 million allocated for small businesses by the first week of December.”

By law, funds from the CARES Act must be distributed by Dec. 31. Unused funds must be returned to the State of Maryland.

When county officials recently tallied receipts, they realized that not all of the money would be spent by the deadline. Vanhooser advocated for some of the money to be transferred into the grant program for small businesses.

Additional Grant Funding Available

“I get calls almost every day from business owners asking for assistance, and I was having to tell people that our money had been distributed,” Vanhooser said. “Thankfully, we were fortunate enough to receive an additional $250,000 of the money the county received from the CARES Act.”

Any business or nonprofit with less than 50 employees that hasn’t yet received a grant and can show a 25% loss of revenue caused by COVID-19 is eligible to apply. But the clock is ticking.

If you are planning to apply, you must act quickly. The department began accepting new submissions online Nov. 30. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until 5 p.m. Dec. 11. Every file is dated and time stamped and will be considered in the order received.

The requirements are fairly straightforward, Vanhooser said. But it is absolutely essential that anyone who plans to apply have complete financial documents ready before they apply.

Application Requirements

Businesses must be in good standing with the State of Maryland, and they must not owe any taxes. In addition, businesses must submit the following:

• a completed application;

• comparative monthly profit and loss statement for 2019 and 2020;

• most recent business tax returns; and

• a signed W-9 IRS Form

Grant recipients may use the money to offset business losses caused by the pandemic. Qualifying expenditures include rent or mortgage payments, utilities, inventory, personal protective equipment, enhanced cleaning protocols, and upgrades designed to limit person-to-person contact. Each business that receives a grant must also submit a final report detailing how it spent the funds.

“This money has an expiration date,” County Council President Corey Pack said in a statement. “Talbot County has until Dec. 30 to disperse the remainder of the CARES funding. We encourage any business that still needs assistance and has not yet applied to get their application in as soon as possible.”

The Talbot County Department of Economic Development and Tourism and the Talbot County Finance Office together are administering the program. An online application form can be found at TalbotWorks.org, along with information about other business resources. For more information, call 410-770-8000.

Kent County Offers Social Distancing Guidance to Businesses

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While most of our retail establishments have implemented essential social distancing measures to stop the spread of COVID-19, others may be neglecting their civic responsibility to keep their patrons, our citizens, safe.

In the interest of protecting all Kent County residents from the spread of COVID-19, Governor Hogan has issued an executive order giving local health departments the authority to require modification of operations or to close retail establishments that are not complying with social distancing guidelines.

If you have not yet implemented appropriate social distancing strategies, you need to develop a plan and implement it immediately. For resources and guidance, click here. Additional guidance specific to small businesses can be found here.

Some effective strategies for social distancing include, but are not limited to: marking floors to ensure adequate distance between customers, limiting the number of people at one time in the facility and establishing customer flow patterns that limit contact between your customers.

Additionally, you must regularly disinfect frequently touched surfaces like shopping carts, door handles, checkout areas and any other high-touch surfaces.

For everyone’s safety, if an employee is not feeling well, direct them to stay home.

A Poster for Visitors and a Poster for Staff are also available to help remind your teams to use best practices, and we encourage you to display these or something similar throughout your facility.

If we find establishments not complying with the governor’s order, Kent County Health Department may issue an order to require the establishment to close until an appropriate social distancing plan is developed and executed. It is up to the management of the establishment to ensure a safe environment for its patrons. Repeated social distancing violations may result in an order to close for the duration of the emergency.

We want to thank the business community for supporting our residents, and we applaud your efforts to keep all Kent County residents as safe as possible.