EDC Postpones Assistance to Businesses Affected by COVID-19

27/4/2020

What happened:

[NOTE: We held this article to wait for clarifications by Ken Medders and Darla Lapeyre. Neither Mr. Medders no Ms. Lapeyre would comment for this article.]
Last Tuesday the EDC passed two motions
1.    Allow the Birding and Nature Center a 4-month rent and loan repayment;
2.    Postpone action on assisting businesses affected by COVID-19.

Why it matters:
1.    For businesses applying for the Payment Protection Plan (PPP), 75% has to be used towards payroll. For places like Birding and Nature Center, the animals still need to be feed, and upkeep needs to be met. "I was hoping that we would not have to ask the EDC to help us with any funding, depending on how long this takes we may have to do that as well. We don’t want to, we want to be able to help other businesses," said Councilwoman Alita Bagley on behalf of the Birding and Nature Center.

2.    Regarding the possible assistance program Ken Medders admits complaints he's received over scrutiny by the EDC. "Where’s the EDC if you can spend $25,000 for used furniture, $25,000 for paint, and $25,000 for plants? Why can’t you help us? I don’t have an answer for that."

[NOTE: We asked Mr. Medders to explain what complaints he had received over scrutiny by the EDC. Mr. Medders did not respond. Additionally, when asked why the 2019 budget documents did not show any expenditures for furniture, paint, or plants, Mr. Medders also did not respond. EDC Director, Darla Lapeyre, also did not respond when asked what Mr. Medders was referring to when EDC documents from 2019 failed to show money spent on furniture, plants or paint.]

Mikey Furcron mentioned a possible idea of not giving all the assistance at once, but in different payments, he added, "We want to help businesses and do what we can, and I think we should try to do something, (I’m) just not sure (to) what extent or what level that we can do it, and how many businesses we'll be able to help."

According to Executive Director, Darla Lapeyre, "Our revenue will be down. 70% of the (revenue) will come in the next 6 months. We might have a revenue shortfall and we might not have as much in the budget depending on how the summer goes.”

Kori Marra added, "It’s a good learning experience. I want to know from those businesses which ones don’t happen. What happened? Why is it that they're not opening back up if it does happen? I hope we don’t have a huge fallout. We'll make do with the businesses that struggled through this and stick together."

Pandemic is uncharted territory for everyone at this time, and amid a tight budget, EDC Member Beverly Skloss urged taking their time to, "See how it plays out, because we could be giving money to some businesses at this point that can’t even stay in business. I think we need to be real careful and we need to have real strong criteria when we do decide to give out money whichever program it's for."

After discussion Furcron made a motion to table the item, "Based on the conversation, we are not ready to make a program that we can take to the city for approval."

Now what:
If your business needs assistance, please apply for the Payment Protection Plan (PPP) if not already done so.

Also, here’s a helpful and insightful article from the Business Insider website of 23 sources of emergency funding to aid small businesses during this time.

To view the meeting click here. If you would like to keep up to date, the EDC’s next meeting is on Tuesday May 19, 2020 at 9:00 a.m.