Warren to provide $5,000 loans for businesses

Money from CARES act set aside to help small business reopen

WARREN -- The city will be using $300,000 it received from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act to help small businesses reopen as the state begins to loosen its restrictions.

Warren's CV-19 Business Support loans will be deferred loans of up to $5,000 that may be forgiven once the business has reopened or has reached certain milestones set by the city.

Warren Community Development Director Michael Keys said the city was awarded $700,000 in CARES Act funds.

"We decided to use $300,000 for this program," Keys said. "We have been talking with a variety of area development agencies for several weeks about what is needed in this area for the reopening of the economy."

The city hired the Western Reserve Port Authority's economic action group to talk to area businesses about existing programs available to help them restart. It was during these conversations that it was discovered area small businesses that may not qualify for Small Business Administration loans still need help.

"The big SBA loans often have been good for larger companies, but unavailable for smaller companies," Keys said.

The CARES Act was approved by Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support and signed by the president on March 27. This $2 trillion-plus economic relief package is supposed to protect the American people from the public health and economic impacts of COVID-19.

Warren Redevelopment and Planning Corp. will be taking the applications for the loans and, once approved by the city, it will be monitoring that the loans are being used as agreed upon between the business and the city.

"This is basically to help businesses that have to make changes to the physical structure of the businesses, including placing Plexiglas to maintain social distancing, purchasing personal protective equipment, purchasing disposal menus, etc," Anthony Iannucci, WRAP executive director, said. "These loans may be forgivable."

While the loans are available for any business, they will be focused on helping smaller companies, Iannucci said.

Keys described Warren as being on an upward trend in the opening of small businesses in the last several years.

"This could help them keep their heads above water," he said.

Keys said he chose to make the loans a maximum of $5,000 each as a way to reach a wider number of businesses while being enough to impact their ability to either stay open or reopen. The loans will be available as long as money is available.

The money may not be used for payroll.

"There are other low-interest loan programs that may be used to help with payroll," Keys said. "We did not want to have this money used up in operating expenses, such as payroll."

Mayor Doug Franklin said the city recognizes the hardship small businesses have been experiencing since mid-March.

"Our goal is to help ease the burden of our business community as we work together to recover from the devastation caused by this virus," he said.

rsmith@tribtoday.com