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SPENCER – A dozen Spencer businesses will receive grants funds from the town using American Recovery Plan Act monies and checks should go out “pretty quickly,” Town Administrator Jeffrey Bridges said this week.
Selectmen at their Feb. 26, 2024 meeting approved the expenditure of about $116,000 to fund grants ranging from $3,000 to $20,000. Half a million dollars was set aside to fund the grant program in order to help local businesses that suffered losses during the COVID_19 pandemic.
Bridges said applicants were required to submit three years of tax returns. During the process, 2019 returns were used as a baseline and compared to an average of 2020 and 2021 combined to determine what losses businesses incurred.
If businesses received other assistance through COVID pandemic loans, that was also considered, Bridges said.
Corporations and sole proprietors were reviewed differently and were also eligible, Bridges explained.
Business owners could apply for up to 2 percent of their business’ average annual expenses for tax years 2020 and 2021, but grant awards would not exceed $20,000, according to the town’s website. About 25 businesses applied and after the dozen voted as recipients on Monday, there are four applications remaining to be processed though it is not yet known whether those businesses will be qualified to receive funds, Bridges said.
It appears the town will have money left over in the business grant program and that, Bridges said, could be used for other projects at the discretion of Selectmen.
All ARPA funds the town has received have to be under contract for expenditure by the end of December of 2024 and then entirely spent by the end of December 2026, he said.
The grant program is unique to the area and despite initial efforts to offer something similar in other communities, it appears Spencer is the only town in the region to have successfully created the ARPA business grants program.
While the program’s design was complicated and the process took longer than expected, Bridges said he was glad the town could help local businesses. He thanked the business owners for their patience.
“I’m very happy the town’s able to do this,” he said. “And actually very proud the town’s able to do this.”
The grants can be used for payroll (excluding owner, principals), utilities, mortgage, rent, vendor payments, other employee compensation (incentives and/or bonuses, excluding owner, principals, and family), documentable business expense, facilities/building repairs, new equipment and other expenditures approved by the Board of Selectmen, according to the application.
Once businesses expend the funds and show proof that they complied with the requirements to local officials, the grant is closed and they owe the town nothing.
The following grants were approved by Selectmen:
$20,000 – B.S.D., Inc. owned by Bruce Derosier
$20,000 – Royal Crest Farms owned by Anthony Moschini
$17,631 – Spencer Motor Sales owned by David Boudreau
$10,147 – Top Notch Fence owned by Matt and John LaCroix
$9,457 – Granville’s Pub owned by Vance Granville
$8,964 – TCB Realty owned by Bruce Derosier
$8,055 – KMK Catering owned by Rick Nelson
$7,846 – Four Paws Academy owned by Rebecca Pond
$4,993 – DJ Entertainment and Lighting owned by Greg Bedard
$3,000 – Cedarwood Kennel Pet Grooming owned by Helen Barnes
$3,000 – E.C. House Cleaning owned by Eliana Coca
$3,000 – Steve’s Bargain Outlet owned by Steve Tellier.
