Litchfield Park eases COVID-19 relief grant requirements

By Kelly O’Sullivan
Twitter: @AzNewsmedia

Litchfield Park businesses and nonprofits struggling as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic may be eligible for grants up to $10,000 through the city’s newly revised Business Assistance Program.

In August, the City Council set aside $180,000 in federal CARES Act funds and approved the program with qualification and deadline requirements that proved too restrictive for many small businesses. Nonprofits were not included in the original program.

On Wednesday, Oct. 21, the council unanimously approved revisions recommended by Finance Director Paige Peterson that will allow businesses and nonprofits in the city to apply regardless of whether they received COVID-related government financial assistance from programs including the Payroll Protection Program, Economic Injury Disaster Loan, SBA Express Bridget Loans and SBA Debt Relief funds.

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Under the revised program, businesses and nonprofits will have three deadlines to submit applications: Fridays, Nov. 20, Dec. 18, and Jan. 22.

There will be separate applications for businesses and noprofits.

To participate, both must have had an active presence in Litchfield Park before January 2019 and be able to prove the pandemic caused their revenues to drop by at least 25% during any two month period from March through their application date.

Businesses also must have active Litchfield Park business licenses.

Sole proprietors who do not have professionally prepared balance sheets and income statements may provide bank statements, a Class C profit and loss statement from their 2019 tax returns and a signed affidavit certifying they are providing all their financial information.

Nonprofits will be required to show how the pandemic has impacted revenues and donations, and detail how their programs assist the Litchfield Park community.

“A good example is, we very may well have a significant number of people in our community that need food assistance and we have different nonprofits that are there and able to provide that food, but a lot of them don’t have the money to necessarily do it,” Mayor Thomas L. Schoaf said.

“I would hope that we would hear from some of them so that we could actually do something for the nonprofit that would directly benefit our residents,” he said.

Businesses not eligible for the program include franchisees not licensed to exclusive Arizona-headquartered franchises, real estate investment firms, lending businesses and multi-level marketing businesses.

For more information about the program or to request an application, call City Hall at 623-935-5033 or email ppeterson@litchfield-park.org.

To watch video of the meeting, visityoutube.com/watch?v=2YmyJojqArk&t=6463s.