City of Clovis Small Business CARES Act Relief Funds Application Open October 1-October 16, 2020

The City of Clovis has received an award of $4,260,000.00 for Small Business Grants in Partnership with Local Governments, and is working with the Clovis/Curry County Chamber of Commerce and Small Business Development Center to allocate the no match grants through the clovisnm.org/CARES portal. Expenses eligible for funding are COVID related and incurred during the period March 1, 2020 to December 15, 2020.

The New Mexico CARES Small Business Continuity Grant will be available to qualifying small businesses with 50 or fewer full-time equivalent employees.  Grant proceeds must be spent on eligible “business continuity” expenses.  To be eligible, the company must be headquartered in New Mexico and either have been forced to close or severely curtail business operations as a result of closure orders from the state, and have an annual revenue of $2 million or less prior to the impact of COVID-19.   Grant awardees must spend “business continuity” grant money on non-owner employee payroll, rent, scheduled mortgage payments, insurance, utilities, or marketing.  Grant awardees must spend “business redesign’ grant money on things like reconfiguring physical space, installing plexiglass barriers, purchasing web-conferencing or other technology to facilitate work-at-home, or PPE for employees.

“Over the coming days we will be reaching out to all businesses to advise them regarding the grant, encouraging them to apply for funding if they have unmet needs due to COVID-19,” advised Mayor Michael Morris. “Assisting area businesses recover remains our priority, and we would like to make sure all businesses meeting the State’s criteria for funding are helped.”

The grant application period will be October 1-October 16, 2020.   The City of Clovis, Clovis/Curry County Chamber and Small Business Development Center will hold a virtual press conference regarding this at 10:30 a.m., Monday, September 28^th, 2020 to provide further information, and businesses are invited to watch and ask questions through the City of Clovis’ Facebook portal (City of Clovis NM City Government).

“The Chamber is sensitive to the financial challenges our local businesses are facing and $4.2 million, awarded to the City of Clovis, in small business grants is a critical step in the right direction,” said Ernie Kos, executive director for the Clovis/Curry County Chamber of Commerce. “We welcome the opportunity to partner with the City of Clovis to administer these grants and hope they lighten the load for many small businesses in our community on their way to recovery.”

For questions or more information regarding the grant application, please contact the Clovis/Curry County Chamber of Commerce at 575 763-3435 or visit clovisnm.org/CARES.