91 small businesses in Lacey have received COVID-19 grant money from the city
In a little over a month, the city of Lacey has nearly burned through its $1 million grant fund to help small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
That was according to Lacey City Manager Scott Spence, who updated the City Council and North Thurston Public Schools board Tuesday evening about the status of the fund.
“The economy has been a central concern for the city,” said Spence, pointing out that the council acted quickly in offering assistance.
Gov. Jay Inslee, in an effort to slow the spread of the respiratory virus, ordered non-essential businesses to close on March 16. Ten days later the council approved the fund, aimed at helping businesses with 25 or fewer employees, with a special emphasis on those with 10 or fewer workers.
The city worked with the Thurston Economic Development Council to screen applicants and award money.
To date, the city has funded 91 small businesses with an average grant size of about $9,000, or more than $800,000 of the $1 million fund. Spence said the typical recipient has about 5.2 employees. Overall, the fund has saved more than 400 jobs, he said.
In some cases, Spence said the city was able to award the grants faster than loan products offered by the Small Business Administration.
Still, the SBA’s “paycheck protection program,” in which an SBA loan is forgivable under certain conditions, has been widely used, according to earnings data released by the parent companies of Olympia-based Heritage Bank and Hoquiam-based Timberland Bank.
Since April, Heritage officials said they funded 2,817 PPP loans totaling $687.1 million with an average loan size of $244,000. Timberland officials said they funded 570 PPP applicants with loan requests aggregating to approximately $99.1 million.
This story was originally published May 6, 2020 at 5:45 AM.
