Four county businesses among grant recipients

    COUNTY – Four Shelby County businesses have been awarded grants from the Iowa Economic Development Authority as part of the state’s Iowa Small Business Relief Fund, as announced by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds in March.    The award program has been developed to provide financial assistance to small businesses impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.    Grant recipients in this first wave of funding include:• Kest-Quest, Inc., (Subway), 3012 Country Club Pkwy, Harlan - $10,000• The Norse Horse Tavern, Elk Horn - $5,000• Kest-East, Inc., (Subway), 3012 Country Club Pkwy, Harlan - $12,000 (Audubon County)• Vizmart, Inc., (Mi Casa) 512 Market, Harlan - $25,000    Iowa Small Business Relief Grant award notifications were made the week of April 7.    The program offers eligible small businesses grants ranging from $5,000-$25,000 in addition to offering Iowa businesses a deferral of sales and use or withholding taxes due and waiver of penalty and interest. The application window for this program closed the end of March.    The program is being expanded from its original $4 million to $24 million, the governor announced this month, and additional rounds of grant funding are expected.    To qualify, businesses had to project revenue losses of 75 percent or more during a time period of March 15-April 15.    Businesses also were required to submit a description of economic injury and workforce impact, revenues for March 2019 and March 2020 to date of application and balance sheet and payroll information.    Business applicants had to answer questions about civil or criminal court history or allegations, bankruptcies, potential violations of public health, safety or environmental laws, and whether the business is in good standing with the Iowa Department of Revenue.    In total statewide, 14,000 grant applications were submitted.    Every application received was triaged for eligibility and economic need. The triage screening included an assessment of each applicant’s projected revenue loss for the period of March 15 to April 15 as supported by the applicant’s financial documentation.    For the first round of funding (April 7-10), priority was given to businesses demonstrating projected revenue losses of 75% or greater and businesses that were among the first to close due to the  public health emergency.