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Park City
Everything to do inside of Park City proper.

$2.2 Million Available to Park City Small Businesses Through CARES Grants

Ken Lund on Flickr

At Friday morning’s Park City Council special meeting, the council and city staff discussed a new federal CARES Act grant program for local small businesses. The city has recently received $2.2 million dollars of State and Federal CARES Act assistance.

 

The application process for the Park City CARES Grant Program is tight. Applications for grants open on Monday October 26th and close on November 9th, with checks distributed on November 20th.

 

Park City small businesses and nonprofits are encouraged to apply if they have any unmet financial needs due to the pandemic since March 1st and have fewer than 40 full-time employees. An unmet need is considered to be anything that has not been covered by any other previous financial aid, like PPP loans or other county grants.

 

Businesses that receive grants will have until November 30th to spend the CARES money, but the city is in the process of applying for an extension on that deadline to December 30th.

 

The additional aid was secured through working with the Utah League of Cities and Towns and other state officials. Councilmember Becca Gerber said the uniqueness of Park City’s economy helped identify it as an area that remains in need of assistance.  

 

“I think part of the reasons we got this extra money is because we are tourism based and one of the things about a tourist-based community is that we don’t function by the same rules that a lot of other communities do,” Gerber said. “We are a very different beast, where we make four months out of the year and then try to hang on for the rest of the year. For us to, you know, be going into our busy season, the one time of year where we actually make money, with so many questions over our head, I think being able to use this money on as many businesses as possible in our community is going to provide a lot of relief and take a lot of pressure off people.”

 

With winter just around the corner and many local businesses needing a successful ski season to stay afloat, the local economy is likely to face its biggest challenge yet in the coming months. So much is still up in the air and Gerber said it could be hard to know which businesses to prioritize. 

 

“I think the hard part is, when you talk about existing six months from now, this winter is really going to make or break for so many businesses and it’s hard because to some degree, it’s almost like you want to stabilize as much as possible the businesses that are doing okay heading into winter so that they can make it through, whereas if there are businesses that are really on the verge if we have a bad winter, it’s going to be hard no matter what,” she said. “There’s so many unknowns as we move into this winter and there’s a lot of businesses that are going to have to be scrappy because this is such a great opportunity and such a great pot of money. But, really, the big test is December and January for most of us.”

 

Councilmember Max Doilney was looking past the winter season and said with health experts saying the pandemic could last well into next summer, businesses need to have the resources to stay above water -- ideally for another year.  

 

“I don’t think it’s about the next six months,” said Doilney. “The next six months, there are going to be a lot of businesses who can tread water based on what we’ve seen over the summer. If they can’t survive next spring through summer and into the fall, the businesses that did not do well this summer, they still have to carry water for six or seven months after our busiest season. It’s about setting up infrastructure that’s going to allow them to do better than just okay this winter. They have to do better than that this winter to survive next summer. It’s actually a year. It’s a year. If you can get to this time next year, you’re likely going to have done alright.”

 

The minimum grant available will be for $2,500. Businesses will need to show at least that much in losses due to the pandemic in order to qualify for funding.

 

City Economic Development Director Jonathan Weidenhamer said since the city will decide how the money will be allocated, other local nonprofits could receive funding as well.  

 

“If, worst case scenario, we can’t find enough businesses to take $2 or $2.4 million, there’s big not-for-profits that are helping individual community members that are probably ready, willing, and able to take the money,” Weidenhamer said. “The school district has shown us a huge need to cover some of their expenses to get the community ready for this. I don’t think we’re going to be lacking places to help funnel this money into.”

 

Councilmembers Nann Worel and Steve Joyce were appointed as the two liaisons to the business community and will help oversee the grant-awarding process.

 

A link to more information on the Park City CARES Grant Program, or to apply, can be found here.

Sean Higgins covers all things Park City and is the Saturday Weekend Edition host at KPCW. Sean spent the first five years of his journalism career covering World Cup skiing for Ski Racing Media here in Utah and served as Senior Editor until January 2020. As Senior Editor, he managed the day-to-day news section of skiracing.com, as well as produced and hosted Ski Racing’s weekly podcast. During his tenure with Ski Racing Media, he was also a field reporter for NBC Sports, covering events in Europe.
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