Jacksboro Economic Development Corporation creates Business Rescue Grant

With small businesses across the nation being economically affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Jacksboro Economic Development Corporation created a business rescue grant to help local businesses get through this hard time.

JEDC executive director Lynda Pack said the grant will give a maximum of $2,500 for a 45-day period to local businesses with less than 25 full-time employees. She said the JEDC has a total of $25,000 to award to businesses.

“We are looking to some local foundations and some local contributions to increase that amount if we can,” she said. “We want to do a quick turnaround for people because we’re hoping that this will be a gap filler for them while they’re applying for federal and state funds.”

The executive director said the businesses will have the ability to use the money to pay their lease/mortgage, utility payments, payroll, critical business operations or other business needs which are approved by the EDC’s oversight committee. Pack said the business will have to provide receipts for the money used as soon as possible after receiving the check from the JEDC.

Businesses will be given priority for the grant if they have had to close, lay off employees, limit operations to take-out, curb-side or delivery, or can show other direct negative impacts which threaten the ability of the business to continue operations long-term.

“We want them (businesses) to compare their estimated net-income for the month ending on March 31 with their actual from that same month in 2019. We’re not asking for the whole year just for a month,” Pack said. “If they’re new in business and don’t have something from the previous year, then they can use their actuals from February 2020.”

She added the JEDC wants to know how many full and part-time employees the business has and how many they would normally employ as well as list of the business’s expenses.

For an application to be considered, it must have a copy of the business’s most recent balance sheet.

The JEDC will be accepting applications through April 10 or until funding runs out. For more information about the grant, contact Pack at lyndapack@jacksboroedc.com or by phone at 940-229-9881.

Pick up the tab program

The JEDC and Jacksboro Chamber of Commerce has also introduced the Pick up the Tab Program during this time of COVID-19 to help bring more customers to local restaurants while encouraging larger tips.

The program will allow for employers to purchase up to $100 worth of food at a Jacksboro restaurant for  a reimbursement. Alcohol and gratuity are not included in the reimbursement.

“This was the thing that we very first started out with, we were trying to think of something because we knew that the restaurants were being impacted immediately,” Pack said. “This was the way we figured we could help, several ways. We could let employers purchase meals for their employees, which is a meal those employees don’t have to pay for, so that’s money that their saving and it will help the restaurants because they need the customers. Hopefully, it will help the servers because what we’re hoping is if people don’t have to pay for their meals then they will leave a generous tip.”

She added an employer can participate once a week as long as they use a different restaurant each week.

Pack said the program has been allocated $5,000 and will continue until funds run out. For more information on how to participate, contact Pack or the Chamber of Commerce.