Assistance starts flowing from small business fund

Grand Lake’s elected leaders decided on Monday to contribute $25,000 to the Small Business Assistance Fund being administered by the Grand Foundation, bringing the fund up to $390,000 in municipal contributions.

So far, Grand County ($100,000), Winter Park ($100,000), Fraser ($100,000), Granby ($50,000), Kremmling ($15,000) and Grand Lake have all pledged various amounts to seed the fund designed to help Grand County’s small businesses weather the coronavirus closures.

“We got to help these small businesses,” said Megan Ledin, executive director at the Grand Foundation, explaining the foundation doesn’t normally step in to help for-profit businesses but is doing so now because people in Grand County will suffer if they don’t have jobs to go back to.

So far, the foundation has received more than 120 applications for assistance. Ledin said the requests exceed the money that’s currently available, but the foundation is also seeking matching grants to boost the fund and talking to the county’s bigger stakeholders to see if they’re interested in collaborating. 

Ledin emphasized that the foundation has a responsibility to the donors to ensure money from the fund is distributed as responsibly and as equitably as possible. She said assistance from the fund will start going out this week.

In addition to the $25,000 contribution from the town, the Grand Lake Board of Trustees also discussed ways to use the town’s water fund reserves to help water customers, and that plan is expected to come up again at the board’s next meeting.