The Manitowoc Common Council Monday night approved the city to donate $150,000 into a local COVID 19 Relief fund to help small businesses that were forced to shut down or lost revenue during this pandemic.
Mayor Justin Nickels told SeehaferNews.com, “We have a lot of small businesses in this community where they may have been forced to shut down. Salons for example. They couldn’t do curbside pickup, so they had to shut down, but…they still had to pay their rent, and their lease. They still had to pay their utilities.”
Nickels says this public-private partnership includes a $100,000 joint donation from Bank First and Investors Community Bank and the Mayor says they will be reaching out to Manitowoc Public Utilities to chip in as well.
The Mayor called it a “great effort to reach out to our small businesses in these tough times.”
Eligible businesses will be able to receive a one-time grant of up to $5000.
The city plans to roll out the program by June first and applications should be coming out in the “very near future.”
