Lee County to make $50 million available for COVID-19 relief

Lee County to make $50 million available for COVID-19 relief

MONITORED.AS OF NOW, NO INMATES HAVETESTED POSITIVE.THE SAME BILL CONGRESS PASSED TOPUT 12-HUNDRED DOLLARS IN YOURPOCKET, ALSO SENT MILLIONS OFDOLLARS IN AID TO COUNTIESAROUND THE COUNTRY.LEE COUNTY JUST GOT ITS SHARE,WHICH CAME OUT TO 135-MILLION.BUT COMMISSIONERS TELL US, THEYWEREN’T GIVEN MUCH INSTRUCTIONON HOW TO SPEND IT.FOX 4 REPORTER ROB MANCH WAS ATTHE COMMISSION MEETING TODAY.ROB━ HOW’S THE COUNTY PLANNINGTO MOVE FORWARD?((:26 - :31))(1:03 - 1:08)NTRO:Well the commission decided on afirst step today, which meansthey want to start by spending50 million dollars of thatmoney.The largest chunk of that, abouthalf, will go to help out smallbusinesses.And I talked to one businessowner who says, she could reallyuse the assistance.PKG:About two months ago, JenniferWhyte would have never thoughtshe’d be making the long walk tothe podium to address countycommissioners with concernsabout her business."We were still growing at arapid 30% rate, year over year.Most businesses don’t see that.Most industries don’t see thattype of growth, year over year,especially at year 8."Whyte owns Fort Myers Brewing,and all that growth came to ascreeching halt in the middle ofMarcJennifer Whyte, Fort MyersBrewing Owner:"We rely on draft beer sales torestaurants, bars, hotels,airports.

That’s about 68percent of our total businessusually, and in mid-March, thatdropped to zero."County Commissioners want tohelp business owners like Whyte,but given the circumstances,it’s hard to know where tostart."We were given $135 million tohelp us respond to COVID-19 fromthe Federal Government with veryfew guidelines as to how to doit."The first step the county plansto take is to build a webportal, where businesses likeFort Myers Brewing can apply forup to 5 thousand dollars inassistance.But Commission Chair BrianHamman admitted, that won’t beenough to keep everyone afloat."If it’s somebody whosebusiness was already on theirlast legs, and probably,unfortunately heading towardclosure anyways, it would bevery hard for us to save thatbusiness at this time, andthat’s hard to say, becauseobviously we don’t want anybusiness to close."Whyte says her business alsotook advantage of the PaycheckProtection Program from thefederal government.She says, with continuedsupport, she’s confident herbrewery will be packed againsoon."We’ll get through this, andwe’ll be stronger for it in thelong run."TAG:The County says it will takeseveral weeks before that webportal goes online, because theydon’t want it to crash becauseof high demand.The board also said, in thisfirst phase of assistance, 20million dollars will go towardrent, mortgage, and u