Demand appears to be greater than supply when it comes to Small Business Relief Grant money in St. Louis County.  900 businesses submitted applications during the 15-day enrollment period for Phase 3 that recently ended - requesting more than 5 times the amount of available funding.

According to details released by St. Louis County, those 900 small businesses requested grant funding totaling $16.4 million; the county has $3.8 million available to give out from the state in the form of grants.

Now that the application period has ended, St. Louis County officials are busy sorting through and prioritizing the applications.  The first step is removing those businesses that are ineligible. The next step is ranking the rest "based upon the demonstrated need and the nature and importance of services the business provides in its community".

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The response wasn't unexpected.  Matthew Johnson, the Planning and Community Development Director for St. Louis County shares:

"We knew the need was great and I'm happy the county can provide some assistance.  We need businesses to recognize that most will receive only a portion of what they requested, and some may not end up receiving a grant at this time.  We certainly can appreciate the difficult position they are in, but we have less than a quarter of the funding needed to satisfy all of these requests."

County officials are also hopeful that the general public will continue to support the small businesses in their community.  That support goes a long way in many cases towards the bottom line of the business.

All of the Phase 3 Small Business Relief Grants will be awarded by St. Louis County by March 15.

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