Mission discusses CARES Act fund distribution
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275 applications for CARES Grant Funding have been approved in Mission.
Daniel Silva, the Chief Executive Officer for the Mission Economic Development Corporation, announced during the Monday, Sept. 28, 2020 city council meeting that 275 applicants from the city were approved for the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act Grant offered by the MEDC.
The Our Mission Forward Grant, offered by the MEDC, provides businesses with aid and funding if they have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. According to Silva, that equates to $911,500 that has been approved for local businesses.
“We currently have 21 filants that are incomplete, and we’re working on those,” Silva said. “The application process ended on Friday, so we’re going to process these and continue moving forward.”
Deputy City Manager Aida Lerma presented updates on the Mission Recovers Grant programs and the “We’re Setting the Table” Business Recovery Program funding, which is also supplemented by the CARES Act funds distributed to Mission.
Both under the Mission Recovers umbrella, the Continue to Employ Grant has approved $612,000, and the Commercial Utility Account has approved $101,000. Lerma said both of those grants have been closed, and the few applicants who were denied were notified that it was because either they were outside of the Mission city limits or they did not have the correct commercial account.
The “We’re Setting the Table” Business Recovery Program was set up two weeks ago to assist family-owned restaurants and provide incentives for the Census program. $83,625 was spent on this program, and in terms of city-administered grants, Mission has given out $797,625.
“We purchased a little over 800 gift certificates from multiple locally-owned restaurants, and we used those for the census events that we had,” Lerma said. “We’ve got enough to hold us over for the rest of this week to be able to get people to continue to fill out the census. It’s very very important, and we urge that.”
The city council also approved Resolution #1688 during the meeting, authorizing the city to borrow on a line of credit with Texas National Bank. Because the CARES Act from the county extended their deadlines for expense reports for requesting reimbursements, and the current line of credit with Mission expired this week (Sept. 30, 2020), city staff made the request to continue CARES Act funding in fiscal year 2021.
Mission Finance Director Angie Vela said this is similar to the first line of credit Mission has – the city has a term of 90 days (Oct. 1 through Dec. 31 or sooner), and the amount cannot exceed $5 million.
