County has grants for restaurants
By Terry Murry on Thursday, November 11th, 2021 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
UMATILLA COUNTY – The state of Oregon has sent $100,000 in CARES Act funds to help restaurants who were economically damaged by the pandemic. The county is dividing the money into 20 $5,000 grants and will hold a lottery drawing on Nov. 30.
“The purpose of these grants is to provide some additional relief to restaurants that were forced to cease indoor operations and provide take-out or outdoor seating only during the extreme category ranking period,” Commissioner John Shafer said.
At that time, Shafer was irate that the state was sending funds to counties in the valley and yet offering no help to Umatilla County restaurants.
Applications are available on the county website and will be there until 9 a.m. Nov. 29. The drawing will be held the next day. The checks will be distributed before the end of the calendar year. Some requirements have been established. The applicant must be a restaurant headquartered in Umatilla County with 25 or fewer full time equivalent employees. It must have been in business and operational prior to March 1, 2020. The grants are not available for nonprofit organizations.
The link for the application is at https://umatillacounty.net/grants. Those without computer access may pick up paper applications at each community’s city hall.
