'I'm Worried:' Business Owners Apply For Grants To Stay Afloat

BETHESDA, MD — Businesses and nonprofits with 100 or fewer employees can now apply for grants of up to $75,000 to help offset losses associated with the coronavirus pandemic.

On Wednesday, Montgomery County leaders launched a $20 million Public Health Emergency Grant program in order to provide financial assistance to businesses hit hard by the outbreak.

Tony Marciante, owner of Chef Tony's in Bethesda, said he didn't normally have to worry about applying for loans and grants. But as the pandemic intensified, the restaurateur grew concerned about his employees and workers. So, he temporarily shut down the business.

"We're in a tough position being a fairly successful restaurant in Bethesda and then all of sudden you're just hitting this wall," Marciante, who has about a dozen employees, said in an interview with Patch. "I'm worried for my employees. I'm worried for ourselves. It's tough because you have a lot of people who want to eat and you want to serve them. But we're really putting ourselves in jeopardy if we open to the public."

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Marciante lauded lawmakers for creating the grant program — which reserves 25 percent of total funds to restaurants and retail. But the restaurant owner said he's still worried about his industry.

"I'm really worried for my industry because it's a bubble," Marciante said. "Even if we get back up and running and we're making sales — that would be wonderful — but we still lost several months of operations, which at our level of profit really is a financial hit."

Shortly after the program launched online, Marciante applied for a grant. He said it was fairly easy to do.

In order to be eligible for a grant, a business or nonprofit must:

• Be physically located only in the county; or
• Have locations outside the county, as long as the county-based location(s) account for more than 50 percent of the total number of full-time equivalent employees, or more than 50 percent of gross sales; and
• Employ 100 or fewer full-time equivalent employees; and
• Have suffered financial losses caused directly or indirectly by the COVID-19 public health emergency

Businesses and nonprofits can apply for a grant of up to $75,000.

According to officials, grant funding must be used for employee wages and benefits, taxes, debt, rent, or other operating losses during the public health crisis.

That's exactly what Edgardo Zuniga — the owner and founder of Rockville's Twin Valley Distillers — said will help keep his business afloat.

"It's mostly to be able to bring my staff back. Maybe compensate some of the payments they have lost. And also to help with the rent," Zuniga told Patch. "The rent is the most important thing. If I don't have money to pay the rent, I literally can't stay in business."

Zuniga said he had 11 employees working at the distillery before the pandemic started. He's now down to eight employees, but says he plans on bringing his staff back once the country gets a better handle on the virus.

Zuniga applied for the grant Wednesday afternoon. Like Marciante, the business owner said the application process was relatively easy.

"We lost a lot of business in the bar (and) retail sales. So we'll see what we can get," Zuniga said. "Whether we get lucky or we don't, we're just going to have to deal with it — one day at a time."

There is no application deadline as of yet.

But Marciante said he didn't want to take any chances.

"I wanted to get in there right away because you never know how much (money) the county is going to have available," he said.

"I'm hoping that the funding is appropriate," Marciante added, "because Montgomery County is an expensive place to live. And it's been a place I've grown up in most of my life. There's certainly a plethora of bills and high taxes. If they want to maintain any of the flavor left in the city or in the county ... I hope they're really generous with their money."

Click here to apply for Montgomery County's grant program.

SEE ALSO:

• Unemployment During Coronavirus: 61K Marylanders Filed Claims
  
• Virus 'No Joke,' Says Restaurateur Who Temporarily Closed Doors
• Distillery Makes Hand Sanitizer Instead Of Liquor: Coronavirus
  
• Face Masks Required Statewide Plus 4 Benchmarks To MD Reopening
• Chevy Chase Man, 89, Sews Coronavirus Face Masks For Hospital