VALDOSTA – As small local businesses are entering the holiday season, they’ll be receiving a gift of their own in the form of $2 million from American Rescue Plan funds.

Minority, female and veteran owned businesses will take more than 82% of the cut.

Valdosta City Council originally allocated $1 million for a Small Business Grant Program as a counterpart to the Nonprofit Grant Program. The program is designed to provide relief to small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and help to revitalize the local economy.

Total allocation is $16,254,682 for Valdosta, with half of the allocation being received in June 2021 and $3.2 million of the funds retained to pay hourly city employees.

The city had received 234 applications totaling $3.9 million of potentially eligible requests, and council approved an additional $1 million to expand the program at its Oct. 20 meeting.

Chuck Dinkins, city finance director, said the committee decided that only priority one applications received in the first two weeks should be funded at 100%; however, additional funds from incomplete, ineligible and over-stated applications freed enough funding to cover all Tier 1 applications.

Applications were prioritized based on location in the qualified census tract as defined by the ARPA, minority/female/veteran ownership and time of application receipt.

This prioritization results in the applications being divided into four buckets, with the committee’s recommended allocation included:

– Minority/female/veteran owned businesses located in the Qualified Census Tracts submitting applications in the first two weeks of the application process. These are the businesses that will be funded at 100% eligibility.

Total funds: $1,645,835.51.

– Non-minority/female/veteran owned businesses located in the QCT. These would be funded at 45% of eligibility.

Total funds: $244,379.83.

– Minority/female/veteran owned businesses located outside of the QCT. These would be funded in proportion to residual funds after all other buckets are funded.

Total funds: $93,817.64.

– Non-minority/female/veteran owned businesses located outside of the QCT. These would be funded at the lesser of eligibility or $800.

Total funds: $10,432.69.

Valdosta City Councilmember Ben Norton expressed gratitude for the committee that helped allocate the “monumental” funds and made a motion to approve their recommended distribution.

In a statement to The Valdosta Daily Times, Christie Moore, president and CEO of the Valdosta-Lowndes Chamber of Commerce, thanked the council for its support of locally owned small businesses.

“Small businesses are the backbone of our community. The chamber is grateful to the Valdosta City Council for recognizing the vital role that small businesses play in maintaining a vibrant community by allocating $2 million in ARPA funds for small business grants. I am proud of the work completed by the ARPA Small Business Grant Committee to ensure that all City of Valdosta licensed businesses had the opportunity to apply and had the opportunity to have help navigating the application process,” she said.

“The vast majority of the businesses that were funded by City Council were minority, woman and/or veteran owned. These businesses were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and although these grants will not fix everything, it is our sincere hope that they will provide much needed support to these businesses that keep our local economy going.”

The council went ahead and approved the bid, with Councilmember Sandra Tooley being the sole holdout due to her previous contention with council not approving 100% funding for all applicants.