Bucks Co. Launches $6M Program To Help Small Businesses

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — Small businesses in Bucks County that have struggled during the coronavirus shutdown soon will be getting some help, in the form of grants from a new county-run program.

The Bucks Back To Work Small Business Grant was announced Monday during an online town hall hosted by members of the Bucks County Board of Commissioners.

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The county has put together a $6 million fund from relief money received from the federal government. With it, the county will be awarding grants of up to $25,000 — or 25 percent of a business's annual operating expenses — to businesses that apply and are approved.

The grant money is not a loan and will not have to be repaid, Commissioner Bob Harvie said during the town hall. Businesses with 49 or fewer employees, and that earn less than $700,000 a year, will be eligible, Harvie said.

Applications for the grant will be accepted on Tuesday, May 26, between 5 a.m.-9 p.m.

They'll be available on the county's website or can be submitted in person at the Bucks County Administration Building, at 55 E. Court St. in Doylestown from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Applications will not be accepted via mail.

There is no application fee.

The county anticipates that grants will be rewarded within 10 business days of the application window closing. To read more details on applying for the grant, click here.

With $25,000 grants, a $6 million fund would be able to help 240 businesses. Harvie said that commissioners hope more money will become available to give more grants in the future.

"It's very likely were going to have to do more of these," he said. "The good news is, the system is set up. We're going to keep the applications on file."

The news came as frustration continued mounting among some business owners in Bucks County.

A gym in Wrightstown has reopened, defying Gov. Tom Wolf's stay-at-home and business closure orders. And other local business owners are saying they'll have to close forever if they're not able to reopen their doors soon.

Bucks County's political leaders have advocated for a quick reopening, urging Wolf to consider moving the county to the less-restrictive yellow phase of his color-coded reopening plan.

"If I was making the decisions for here in Bucks County, I would probably be allowing some of our businesses to open up with restrictions and precautions, more so than we're allowed to do right now," said Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo, the three-member board's lone Republican.

But he and his colleagues urged Bucks businesses not to go against the safety measures in place.

"I would just caution you, if you're thinking about opening up outside of the guidelines that the governor has set, that there are penalties that he has said that he is going to use," DiGirolamo said. "I think we need to all work together to try to get to that yellow phase as quickly as we can. I don't think Bucks County is far away."

Businesses that open outside the bounds of the state's plan face having licenses they need to operate revoked, Wolf has said.

Based on Bucks County's population of roughly 640,000, it would have to have no more than 22 new coronavirus cases per day, on average, over a two-week period to meet Wolf's standard for moving from red to yellow. On Sunday, the county reported 24 new cases, commissioners said Monday.

Meanwhile, the county is working through a new economic recovery task force to help Bucks businesses get ready to reopen. The task force is working with chambers of commerce and other organizations on checklists and guidelines to make reopening smoother.

Statistics, charts and other coronavirus-related information for Bucks County can be found on the county's coronavirus data portal.

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