Second Round of CARES Act Funding
On August 6, 2020, the Town received correspondence from the Loudoun County Department of Finance and Budget indicating the second round of Coronavirus Relief Act Funding (CRF) would be disbursed (Attachment 1). The funding is to be distributed using the same population based methodology applied for the first round allocation. Therefore, the second round distribution will be the same as the first, $891,932. Consistent with the first round, the Town will need to provide a second executed Certification for Receipt of CRF Payments to the County along with a new high level Spending Plan.
A draft Spending Plan, with proposed allocations for the second round CRF, is provided under Attachment 2 for Town Council’s initial review and discussion this evening.
As a reminder, the guidance provided by the US Treasury states the CRF funds must be used for qualified expenses. Specifically, the CARES Act provides that payments from the CRF may only be used to offset costs that:
- Are necessary expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency with respect to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19);
- were not accounted for in the budget most recently approved as of March 27, 2020 (the date of enactment of the CARES Act); and,
- were incurred during the period that begins on March 1 and ends on December 30, 2020.
Due to the necessity for a Budget Amendment, to formally accept and allocate a remaining portion of the first round CRF as well as the second round CRF, a Public Hearing (PH) has been scheduled to be held during the September 22 Town Council worksession. During this PH, the public will have an opportunity to provide input on the projected allocations and proposed use of the CARES Act funds. While formal action associated with the Spending Plan is not necessary this evening, staff would appreciate input from the Town Council to fine tune the draft in preparation for the scheduled PH on September 22.
Second Round CRF – Business Interruption Grants
At the August 28, 2020 Town Council worksession, staff mentioned a possible cooperative partnership opportunity with the Loudoun County Department of Economic Development (DED) to conduct business interruption grants using the 2nd round CRF. To engage in this relationship, the Town will need to accept the grant criteria set forth by DED and make a formal commitment to the Town’s intended allocation of funding for the grants. Staff is proposing $450,000 be allocated for this 2nd round of CRF business interruption grants.
The criteria associated with this 2nd round of CRF business interruption grants, conducted by the Loudoun County Department of Economic Development, will be:
- Have between zero (0) and one-hundred (100) W-2 employees (no limit on 1099 contractors);
- Have less than $5 million in annual gross receipts (this is an increase to the DED’s and the Town of Purcellville’s previous limit of $2.5 million);
- In operation prior to March 1, 2020;
- Have at least a 25% loss in revenue, attributed to COVID-19;
- Be a licensed and operational for-profit business in the Town of Purcellville;
- Applicants who have not received funding in any previous round of Loudoun County’s or Town of Purcellville’s grant process, will be given priority in the receipt of funding.
We understand this round of grants will include agricultural-based businesses as well as commercial enterprises. The DED intends to begin a full two-week marketing push for this 2nd round of CRF business interruption grants, Wednesday, September 9. In addition to the variety of marketing, they also plan to conduct outreach to minority owned businesses to encourage participation in the program. The applications will be accepted, via DED, over a 72-hour period, beginning noon September 23 to noon September 30. Town staff will assist with the outreach calls to Town business applicants beginning October 6. After the review and certification of the applications, DED intends to be able to award the funding by Friday, October 31, 2020.
The Loudoun County Economic Development Authority (EDA) will process the payments for the recipients of this 2nd round of CRF business grants. The Town will need to either amend the existing Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the EDA for this round of grants or enter into a separate MOA. If Town Council takes action this evening to provide a commitment to the allocation of funding and accept the 2nd Round CRF Business Interruption Grant criteria, over the next week or so, staff will work with the County to memorialize Town Council’s action into an amendment or new MOA with the EDA.