The Town of Fountain Hills Economic Development staff is continuing to accept applications from local businesses for a pandemic economic relief program established by the town.

Town Economic Development Director James Smith emphasizes that the grants will be reviewed on a first come basis, so he is urging those interested to submit as soon as possible.

The intent of the Fountain Hills Small Business Grant Program is to provide grants from funding made available from the State of Arizona’s AZCares Fund to Town businesses impacted by COVID-19.

“We are accepting applications and are in the process of reviewing, making recommendations and preparing agreements for the grants,” Smith said. “Applications are being reviewed in the order received and will be accepted until all grant funds have been awarded or Dec. 1, 2020.”

In late May the Town of Fountain Hills received $2.9 million in COVID-19 aide from the state portion of a federal allocation. The council set aside $300,000 of that for the small business grants.

A couple of weeks into the program Smith announced the town would modify its criteria to qualify for the grants.

“Similar to other cities/towns and Maricopa County, the town was previously not allowing businesses that had received assistance from other programs to apply,” Smith said “This was originally put in place to maximize the impact that our dollars would have, particularly on those businesses that had not received any assistance.

“However, after receiving some feedback from the business community and further considering this, we are no longer disqualifying those businesses from applying and being considered for a grant.”

If a business received other grant/loan assistance via programs such as the Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) or the Paycheck Protection Program as part of the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) response to COVID-19, they are no longer disqualified from applying and being considered for a grant.

Requirements for the grant application state that the business:

*Be located within the municipal boundaries of the Town of Fountain Hills.

*Operate as a for-profit business, not as a non-profit, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(6), etc.

*Have an active Town of Fountain Hills business license.

*Began conducting business operations within the Town of Fountain Hills on or before Jan. 1, 2020 and is still operating as of the date funding is awarded.

*Employ 25 or fewer Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) employees as of Feb. 15, 2020.

*Have had gross sales/revenues of less than $3 million in calendar year 2019.

*Not be affiliated with another business under common ownership/management that has applied or will apply for grant funds.

*Agree to provide the Town with adequate documentation regarding the use of the grant funds, including but not limited to, jobs retained/created, increased ability to operate at capacity, corresponding increase in sales/revenues, and documentation of expenditures related to the Eligible Business Expenses, etc.

Grant applications are available on the town website, fh.az.gov.