Wasilla passes Phase 2 of CARES grant plan

WASILLA — The Wasilla City Council passed IM 20-09 without opposition at their special meeting on Monday to open up Phase 2 of their CARES act small business and personal protective equipment grants. In round one of the small business grants provided by the city of Wasilla, 77 small businesses were awarded a total of $556.484.83. The 61 recipients of the PPE grant received $146,434.38 and the city mitigation plan expended $121,385.37 for a total of $824,304.13, equivalent to roughly 10 percent of the total money allocated to be granted by the council.

“You can’t come in and just apply for the money, you have to show that you lost money,” said Mayor Bert Cottle.

The City Administration and Finance Director Joan Miller provided six changes to the city’s grant program from phase 1 of the distribution. After passing at the meeting last Monday, the resolution for Phase 2 will next be presented to the council on August 24, and Cottle said that the earliest Phase 3 could begin is at the September 14 council meeting. The number of employees is no longer a factor when applying for small business grants and national chain stores would also be ineligible except for individually owned and operated local franchises. Corporations on national or foreign stock exchanges or businesses owned by such a publicly traded corporation are also excluded from applying.

The licensing for businesses has been changed to state that any business that was licensed by the city of Wasilla and state of Alaska as of March 1, 2020 will be eligible and that entities who received previous CARES funding are not required to share copies of applications. Grant amounts doubled per council action on Monday. A business earning less than $50,000 and more than $20,000 in annual revenues may receive $2,500. Businesses earning less than $100,000 and more than $50,000 may apply for up to $5,000. Businesses earning less than 250,000 and more than $100,000 may receive up to $10,000 and businesses earning less than $500,000 and more than $250,000 may receive up to $20,000. Businesses earning more than $500,000 are eligible for up to $20,000.

As the council entered into the committee on the whole to discuss any changes to phase 2 before the introduction of the resolution on August 24, Councilman Stu Graham expressed a change of heart on national chains operating in Wasilla.

“That had a significant impact on their operations here in Wasilla and I certainly don’t think that they should be excluded just because their headquarters is not in Wasilla,” said Graham. “When we look at businesses in the city of Wasilla we should look at all businesses operating in the city of Wasilla.”

Cottle clarified after Graham had inquired that businesses may receive up to the full amount they qualify for during each phase of grant distribution. Graham then called into question the difference between businesses that are locally managed and nationally owned and businesses that are nationally managed and locally owned, asking for greater clarification and suggesting that chain stores be permitted to apply. Graham mentioned local grocers who are national chains that offered water during the November 2018 earthquake, but no other council members argued in favor of national chain store inclusion.

“I dont see a validity in that a person that owns a business in the city of Wasilla should be eligible. A franchise owned by a local ownership group should be eligible. I don’t think that if your headquarters is in Seattle and you manage your business out of Seattle that you should be eligible,” said Councilman Tim Burney.

Councilwoman Nikki Velock asked Graham what had changed in his mind between the first and second phases of council grant funding.

“Because those numbers were so low, we certainly have no fear of running out of money in the first phase and if we include the all businesses in the second phase we still have no fear of that happening. So based on the first meeting that we had, we were a little bit conservative based on the amount of money we were putting into the program, putting into the small business part of the program so based on that I had no objection to including the big corporate stores box,” said Graham.

While no changes were made during the meeting on Monday, Councilman Burney noted that he would like to see additional assistance for landlords provided during phase three of grant funding.

“Those big corporations got the PPP money before any of your little mom and pop, or even your franchises that are in Wasilla — even they got their money. So now we’re trying to help the guys that didn’t get their money,” said Councilwoman Glenda Ledford.

After moving out of the committee on the whole, Graham’s motion to allow national chain stores to apply for CARES grants through the city of Wasilla failed to be seconded and thus the motion died.

The only member of the public to comment to the Council was Senator David Wilson.

“I’m glad you stated the numbers on the record of where the city was at thus far. As a city resident I just wanted to make sure was other opportunities or the city has a plan to make sure that there will be other opportunities for businesses of all size and shape to apply,” said Wilson. “Some of these workers are our neighbors, friends, coworkers that may have been impacted by our covid situation here in the state and I just want to make sure we have other plans and do all our due diligence.”