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Aurora offers more grant money for restaurants amid pandemic

December 28th, 2020

By GRANT STRINGER, Staff Writer

Sentinel

AURORA | Aurora restauranteurs can count on another round of emergency grants beginning Jan. 4 when the City of Aurora rolls out a million-dollar program fueled by CARES Act funds.

Restaurant owners can begin applying Monday, Jan. 4 at www.auroragov.org/rr. If eligible, business owners can receive up to $10,000 for rent and payroll expenses.

It’s the latest grant program designed to float restaurants through the worst of the pandemic, while in-person dining is still largely outlawed.

Restaurant owners that already took a grant from the city’s first three rounds of Aurora Economic Resiliency grants aren’t eligible this time around. The grants also can’t “duplicate needs funded by other programs or grants received by the applicants.”

Otherwise, restaurants, bars, breweries, wineries, distilleries and catering companies with 50 or less employees are all eligible.

This round of assistance will make $12 million total doled out by the City of Aurora to struggling businesses during the pandemic.

The effort is a partnership with the Arapahoe and Adams counties CARES Act programs. The counties moved quickly this month to spend the last of their large CARES Act allotments before a Dec. 30 deadline. 

The second federal stimulus, which President Donald Trump has signed after a delay, will dole out more cash to state and local governments for rent assistance and eviction prevention and to businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program.

The $1.4 trillion deal does not include direct relief for state and local governments grappling with revenue shortfalls, including Aurora, that have dramatically expanded social safety net programs.