Stroudsburg – Monroe County continues to battle COVID-19. Every day, more cases are reported in our community by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. People are aware of the effect COVID-19 has had on them and their families including shortages of supplies, being quarantined in their homes and the inability to go to work. Many overlook the effect that it is having on Monroe County’s small businesses some of which have been shut down because they have been deemed “Non-Essential”. Expenses don’t stop but the revenue on which they depend has evaporated.
To assist our small businesses during this pandemic, the Monroe County Commissioners, in partnership with the Pocono Mountains Economic Development Corporation (PMEDC), announced a new program today to fund working capital.
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The program is called the Monroe County COVID-19 Small Business Loan Program and is open to businesses who have been in operation for a least one year and have one to 20 employees including those who may have a few employees and sub-contractors.
“We want to help sustain as many small businesses in Monroe County as we can,” stated Sharon Laverdure, Chairwoman of the Monroe County Board of Commissioners. “We want to see them through this crisis and be ready to re-open their doors as soon as they are able.”
The minimum loan amount will be $3,000 and the maximum loan will be $20,000. Funds can be used for working capital only and will be based on the business’s actual business expenses from January and February of this year. The interest rate will be 1% with no payments due in year one.
Chuck Leonard, PMEDC Executive Director, added; “We had such an overwhelming response to the state’s working capital program and there just was not enough funding available to meet the need. Although the guidelines for this program are a bit different, we still expect an abundant amount of interest from all small business sectors.”
This program is for local businesses only – those that are located in Monroe County. A total of $500,000 is available under this program and it is believed that the money will be insufficient to help all businesses that apply for it.
The program will begin accepting applications on Monday, April 20, 2020 and the deadline to apply will be Monday, May 11, 2020.
Program guidelines, the application and related documents will be available on PMEDC’s website starting today. The information can be found at http://www.pmedc.com/covid-19-business-resources/
Questions can be directed to the PMEDC staff at (570) 839-1992 or emailed to dnoonan@pmedc.com