This week, 27 Missoula area businesses received a portion of nearly $625,000 from the Missoula County  COVID 19 Small Business Job Retention Fund.

Melissa Gordon, Program Manager for Grants and Community Programs, explained the program.

“The commission created the Small Business Job Retention Program and made up to $625,000 in funds available, and the applications became available on December 10,” said Gordon. “Within just a few hours, we had received almost $2.9 million in total requests and we're able to fund $625,000 of those requests.”

Gordon explained the parameters of how the funds could be used.

“The funding can be used to provide for mortgage and lease payments, for payroll expenses, for utilities, for insurance and for inventory,” she said. “So the grant awards are between $10,000 and $25,000, and we were able to support 27 local small businesses with the fund.”

Gordon explained what kind of establishments received the funds.

“Looking at the $625,000 that was available, 58 percent of the funding is going to food and drink establishments; 12 percent is going to retail; 10 percent is going to professional service providers; 10 percent is going to preschool and childcare providers; six percent is going to transportation providers and four percent is going towards lodging,” she said.

Gordon said there is a time factor involved for the funds.

“The term of the grant is three months, it's January 1 through March 31,” she said. “At the end of that time, each recipient will need to provide both a program and a financial report to the county to ensure that the funds were spent as they were intended.”

Following are the establishments that received the COVID 19 funds.

COVID-19 Small Business Job Retention Grant Awards
    
CategoriesTotal Grant AmountsPercent 
Food & Drink$365,00058% 
Burns Street Bistro$25,0004% 
Caffe Dolce$25,0004% 
Create Art Bar$25,0004% 
Dog & Bicycle Bakery Café$25,0004% 
Dram Central$25,0004% 
Gild LLC$25,0004% 
Green Source$25,0004% 
Laughing Grizzly$25,0004% 
Montgomery Distillery$15,0002% 
Pangea$25,0004% 
Scotty's Table$25,0004% 
Shadow's Keep$25,0004% 
The Badlander$25,0004% 
The Press Box$25,0004% 
Second Street Bistro$25,0004% 
Lodging$25,0004% 
Days Inn & Suites Lolo$25,0004% 
Preschool/Childcare$60,23210% 
Little Twigs$25,0004% 
Origins Preschool$25,0004% 
Big Sky Nanny$10,2322% 
Professional Services$60,40210% 
Dr. Kate Baker, DPT$15,5022% 
Ellie Hill Smith Law Office$25,0004% 
Morgan Pierce, PLLP$19,9003% 
Retail$75,00012% 
Hockeywolf$25,0004% 
Missoula Bike Source$25,0004% 
Willow Bark Science$25,0004% 
Transportation$39,1046% 
Medicab ILC$14,1042% 
N&M Freight Solutions, Inc.   

 

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