Cerro Gordo supervisors approve $100K for small business recovery fund

MASON CITY — The Cerro Gordo County Board of Supervisors has approved a $100,000 allocation to the North Iowa Corridor Economic Development Corporation’s “Small Business Recovery & Continuity Fund”. The fund would help small, independently-owned businesses with less than 25 employees that are suffering during the public health emergency with grants of up to $5000.

Supervisor Tim Latham says this kind of a financial contribution will be a big help for businesses struggling throughout the county.   “Anyone who might be upset that we are using public dollars, these are the businesses that have given back to our community for years, whether it be gift certificates, supporting little league teams or this or that. I think this is a small token of what we can do to keep these businesses. As we discussed in several meetings, it’s easier to do this to keep them than to go out and try to recruit new businesses. This is a very inexpensive way to do it.”

Supervisor Chris Watts says getting the money into the fund will help some businesses that are approved early on in the application process.  “Some of them aren’t going to be able to wait a month to continue to be operating. That’s why I was wondering…the sooner the help, the better.”

The supervisors unanimously approved the allocation at their meeting this morning.