MEDFORD, Ore. – Thousands of small businesses across the country are filing applications to receive help from the federal government’s recently passed “CARES Act.” Local businesses told NBC5 News they’ve applied and are waiting to hear whether they’ll receive funding.
Medford’s Common Block brewing company, like many other restaurants, is taking a hit from the coronavirus pandemic. It’s kept on 6 of 45 staff members. However, when the CARES Act passed in March, managing owner Danielle Amarotico said they immediately sent in an application and were accepted for the small business loan.
“It feels really nice to know that we have a backup plan,” Amarotico said. The restaurant is expected to receive funding by the end of the week.
With how easy it was for Common Block, Amarotico encourages others to apply as well. She explained, “It’s just a matter of pulling up some reports, again reaching out to your financial advisors, your payroll servicing companies, that sort of thing.”
People’s Bank agrees and is encouraging clients and non-clients to apply. CEO Ken Trautman said, “If our businesses don’t operate there’s no income. You want to talk about a recession that would be a severe recession that would be the thing to worry about.”
Trautman said as of Monday morning, People’s Bank helped file 500 applications worth a whopping $72 million. Of those, 373 were accepted with more to come.
Since Monday, People’s Bank added an additional 25 million dollars in funding requests. “That tells me there is a lot of demand out there,” Trautman said. “People are trying to figure out the program. They didn’t quite understand it. It’s totally unique to anything to anything I’ve ever seen. I’ve been in banking for 42 years. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
There are issues such as a lack of prioritization for the businesses in need of receiving funds the fastest. Trautman also said the fund set up in the CARES Act is almost empty. “They gave $349 billion dollars to the program. We’re really getting close to the end of that.”
Still, businesses are encouraged to reach out to their financial advisors to apply so they can reopen and stay afloat.
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