Beverly Extends Small Business Grant Deadline

BEVERLY, MA — Beverly is extending the deadline for small businesses in the city to apply for up to $50,000 in grants through its American Rescue Plan Act funding.

Mayor Mike Cahill said at a City Council meeting last month he expected more than $1 million of the $12.6 million the city received in ARPA funds would go toward helping small businesses that took a loss during the two years of the COVID-19 health crisis.

The deadline, which had been set for Wednesday at 5 p.m., has been extended to March 16 at 5 p.m.

The program is designed to benefit businesses in the hospitality, tourism, arts, recreation and retail, and family care industries, including restaurants, fitness centers, personal service providers, entertainment venues, family childcare centers and retail stores.

Beverly ARPA Small Business Manager Jaimie Corliss said that since the grants are not being awarded on a rolling basis there is no need to get the application in far in advance of the deadline or risk the program running out of money like some other federal relief programs did during the pandemic.

She said the losses exhibited must be "reasonable and directly from the impact of COVID" and that the payments are intended to cover operational expenses, not to purchase equipment or for capital expenses.

It is a grant program and thus the money will not have to be repaid.

"As long as they show that they are eligible there will be grants coming their way," Cahill said. "We're going to do our very best to make sure that the awards are meaningful. The goal is to help these businesses survive and recover.

"We really want all these local businesses to get on through to the other side of COVID and get back to thriving."

Applications can be found here.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)