Recovery money still available for local businesses, nonprofits
Economic stimulus efforts may have slowed on the national stage but thanks to local efforts Bakersfield businesses are still receiving grants and forgivable loans to help them through the pandemic.
More than $2.6 million in grant money is still being given out to qualified businesses located within city limits. There’s also a relatively small sum available to Bakersfield businesses in the form of forgivable loans — not counting a little less than $3 million in grant money for local nonprofits.
One of the more recent beneficiaries of these programs is Raymond’s Trophy & Awards on Chester Avenue.
Owner Randy Raymond Jr. couldn’t stomach laying off even one of his half-dozen employees last spring. That’s why, after school closures slowed his business, he took out a personal line of credit just to make payroll.
Then this fall, after Bakersfield’s City Council set aside $3 million in federal Corona Aid, Relief and Economic Security Acts (CARES) money, Raymond applied and got a $75,000 loan. Depending how he spends it he probably won’t have to pay all of it back.
Consignment and antiques store owner Dixie Brewer hasn’t been able to tap that fund but she recently got word her business, In Your Wildest Dreams, was approved for a $10,000 grant from the city. She said it’ll help her hold onto her six employees, which is roughly half as many as she had going into what has been a tough time during the pandemic.
“Honestly, any help is help for me,” she said. “It’s going to, you know, get me through a month of rent and payroll.”
The programs that have been a lifeline to Raymond and Brewer are distinct not only from the well-known, federal Paycheck Protection Program; they’re also separate from the Kern Recovers stimulus program the county used this summer to disburse $30 million in forgivable loans to quali
fied businesses.
Last month the City Council voted to set aside $8 million — about a quarter of the total it got from the federal government as part of the CARES program — to support local employment in three distinct ways.
It devoted $3 million to forgivable loans such as the one Raymond’s received. But instead of administering the program itself the city agreed to have the county run the program as a way of speeding up the process.
The county’s chief operations officer, Jim Zervis, said the county had many loan applications that it and its lending partners had been unable to process before the $30 million fund ran out. Much of the paperwork had come from Bakersfield businesses, he said, and so rather than reopen applications the county turned its attention to existing applicants.
As of Thursday, more than $2.4 million in loans had been issued to 61 Bakersfield businesses. The loans vary in size from $665 to $75,000. Recipients range from law offices and dentists to construction contractors and beauty salons. Zervis added the program is now in its final stages.
The business grant program, also measuring $3 million, doesn’t require repayment, though recipients must certify they will spend the money in compliance with CARES guidelines.
Since the city opened applications Sept. 21, it has received paperwork from more than 300 businesses and given out some $330,000 to 63 organizations.
The size of the awards is determined by how many workers a business employs and most of the grants given out so far have been for $5,000. As of Thursday, only 1 applicant received $15,000 and none have gotten the $20,000 maximum.
Recipients must be independently owned and operated with 25 or fewer employees and 2019 revenues no more than $5 million. They must certify their sales dropped at least 25 percent since March 1. The online portal for applications is at bakersfieldcity.us/ BCARES.
Bakersfield’s third pandemic-recovery program, accounting for $2 million in city money, is reserved for nonprofits. The county runs the distribution process and has contributed $1 million of its own, the only difference being that it can use its money for any nonprofit in Kern, whereas the Bakersfield money must stay within city limits.
As of Thursday, Zervis said, just one nonprofit has received a grant through that program: the Kern Literacy Council.
Executive Director Laura Lollar Wolfe said the nonprofit, which works with local schools to improve local literacy rates, started out the pandemic well, having just gotten two one-time grants. But then it had to cancel a big fundraiser in May.
Its expenses were few at that time so it wasn’t a big problem at first. The council was able to resume operations temporarily but then had to close again. And although it used some of the downtime to adjust to online learning, it hit a fundraising wall in summer and had to cancel a second money-raising event.
Lollar Wolfe said she may have to cancel another important fundraiser scheduled for November.
“Money from the county will really get us over the hump,” she said.
Applications for the nonprofit grant program can be submitted online at https://www.kerncounty. com/government/kern-recovers/ kern-recovers-nonprofit-grant-program.