County businesses net almost $1 million in pandemic funding

A last-minute state fund that aimed to use leftover CARES Act funding to support businesses across Wyoming has closed after providing aid to almost 1000 applicants. This included almost $1 million allocated to ten businesses from Crook County.

However, the available funding was only enough to assist half the businesses that applied for grants. According to the Wyoming Business Council (WBC), the Endurance Fund paid out $82.8 million in total before running out of money.

The fund opened on November 2 with around $24 million in unspent dollars from previous WBC funds and closed on November 18 with 2197 eligible applications. Those applications totaled $215.7 million in requests.

The high demand prompted the WDC to prioritize applicants who had not received previous funding and shift additional leftover CARES Act dollars into the fund.

The WBC announced last week that all the available funding had been expended. Recipients of the fund included two businesses from Beulah, one from Hulett, four from Moorcroft and three from Sundance.

Applicants ranged from construction and trucking to mineral companies, Ranch A and the Sundance Senior Citizen Center, while the requested funding ranged from $1852 to a quarter million dollars. Together, the ten local applicants received grants totaling $983,835.