If you're a business that has been affected by COVID-19 apply for emergency funding relief.
The Rock Island City Council approved $292,000 from the second round of the Small Business Emergency Response Grant at the November 9th City Council Meeting. This allocation comes on top of $250,000 that was allocated earlier this year. Sixty-nine Rock Island businesses received funding in the initial round of grants. The program is designed to stabilize businesses directly impacted by COVID-19. Businesses that have been impacted by mandated closures, reduced revenues, and customer traffic, and those that have made necessary modifications to their business to accommodate social distancing measures will be eligible to apply. The allotments for a single business are $2,500 to $10,000.
Eligible expenses include, but are not limited to, rent/mortgage, utilities, monthly business obligations (equipment leases, insurance, etc.), payroll, and expenses related to modifications to meet to COVID-19 guidelines. All expenses should be those that prevent, prepare for, or respond to COVID-19. All expenses must have been incurred between April 1 and December 30, 2020.
Priority will be given to private, for-profit businesses with a physical location in a commercial building in Rock Island and those that have employees on their payroll. Grants for non-profit agencies are funded under a different allocation.
The grant application can be accessed through the Forward portal beginning November 13th at https://forward.livestories.com/login. The application can also be accessed at https://portal.neighborlysoftware.com/rockislandil/participant/Login.
Questions from businesses regarding eligibility should be directed to Rock Island Economic Development team members Tarah Sipes at (309) 732-2923 or sipes.tarah@rigov.org or Stacey McIntosh at (309) 732-1186 or smcintosh@rockislandforward.com.