Pueblo County to receive an additional $5.8 million in federal funds to aid businesses struggling during COVID-19 pandemic

PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) -- County officials enter the holidays with a nice problem to have; distributing millions of dollars in economic relief money to local businesses or risk losing any money unspent by Dec. 31.

"We still have around $200,000 to spend from our previous allocation," said Pueblo County Commissioner Garrison Ortiz.

Ortiz announced Monday that the county will receive $5.8 million in funding from the federal CARES Act directed to COVID-19 pandemic recovery.

"(It) comes from a $40 million reserve account that the state withheld," he said. "We applied for $6 million and were pleasantly surprised to receive $5.8 million of our request."

However, there are stipulations regarding the money.

Ortiz said only business owners who previously applied for funding -- regardless of whether they received any -- are eligible for the grants.

"We're going to distribute the money evenly among the people who applied in rounds 1, 2 and 3," he said. "The earlier grants were between $3,000 and $9,000 but some businesses need more than others. Those who haven't applied will have to wait until the next round of applications. Hopefully, that'll happen early in the new year."

According to county figures, the area received at least $10 million in the first CARES Act allocation, but the money was shared by the county, the city of Pueblo and the county's health department.

"We needed the money then to keep the governments running, and for COVID-19 operations," Ortiz said. "Now, all of this money will go to businesses who are still struggling because they were forced to close, reduce hours or lost profits."

It's unclear how many business owners have yet to apply and are still in need. Estimates are the county distributed between $1.5 million and $2 million to more than 100 recipients in the earlier grant allocations.

"I think with this latest money, we should be able help most of the businesses that applied," Ortiz said. "It's not the perfect solution for everyone but it should be a big help."

With qualified business owners not expected to receive email notifications until later in the week, the county essentially has one week to distribute the money.

"Our staff is working hard to get it done," Ortiz said. "But this should brighten the holidays for some."

The commissioner also said that the county has applied for state recovery funding, but the available amount wasn't available as of Monday night.