LYNN — James Cowdell, executive director of the Economic Development & Industrial Corporation of Lynn (EDIC/Lynn), said his agency has allocated $700,000 out of $3 million in grants to 113 small businesses as part of the city’s small-business COVID Grant Program.
Cowdell said the grants were awarded over the past two weeks and the agency is planning to allocate $800,000 in grants to 156 businesses next week.
“That will bring the total to $1.5 million out of $3 million,” Cowdell said. “We reached the halfway point.”
The $3 million in grants were allocated from the $75 million in funds given to the city from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
Mayor Jared Nicholson and City Council President Jay Walsh announced on Jan. 19 that the city would be allocating the $3 million to EDIC/Lynn, which would be responsible for appropriating the funds toward businesses that have less than 25 employees. The City Council authorized EDIC/Lynn to begin appropriating these funds by a 9-0 vote on Jan. 25.
Cowdell said he and his agency are coordinating with Nicholson and his staff to do more outreach for businesses to apply for the rest of the grants. Both EDIC/Lynn and the mayor’s office are working alongside local organizations, such as the Greater Lynn Chamber of Commerce and the North Shore Latino Business Association, for additional outreach.
Currently, the agency has received 301 grants and of those, 269 have been completed.
“We’ve been using social media to get the word out and we’re going to be dropping flyers across the business district in the coming weeks,” Cowdell said. “We have the money and now we are distributing it.”
Nicholson said both teams had been doing outreach after the City Council authorized the allocation of the funds. City Councilor-at-Large Brian Field has been serving as the council’s ARPA liaison to communicate with other departments regarding the use of the funds and the timeline on related projects.
Nicholson said it was important to think about what groups of people need to hear about the grant program, such as those who do not speak English as their first language.
“I think with outreach it is important to give ourselves time and consider who are the easiest to reach out to and the hardest to reach out to,” Nicholson said. “We are getting the word out to the hard-to-reach folks.”
Additionally, the applications for grants are in English, Spanish, Arabic and Haitian Creole.
The types of businesses that have applied are diverse in what they offer, whether it be Aldo’s Salon and Tanning, Boba Tea and Snow Ice House or Christopher’s Cafe & Catering.
Cowdell, however, did see a common theme from the applications: Many of these businesses are struggling with staffing.
“There are not enough workers at some of these places right now,” he said.
Of the 113 businesses that had already received grants, Cowdell said 95 of these businesses were owned by minorities and women. The average amount of grant money given to one of these 113 businesses was $6,000.
According to the language of the COVID Grant Program, minority- and women-owned businesses are given priority when applying for grants and the maximum amount of money a business can receive is $10,000.
