Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect that council member Dan Fallon voted against the resolution.

Frisco businesses will get another chance to apply for grant money from the town over the coming weeks.

The Frisco Town Council voted to extend and expand the town’s economic relief programs during a regular meeting Tuesday, Feb. 9, allowing new businesses, and those that missed the last deadline, to apply for some financial assistance. Dan Fallon was the only council member to vote against the resolution.

During a special town council meeting on Dec. 21, 2020, Frisco re-established its economic relief programs, allocating $500,000 to provide grants to local businesses that could show a direct impact as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and related public health orders. The program ended Jan. 31, and the town granted out a total of $215,000 from the Frisco General Business Assistance Grant Program in addition to $87,000 from the Frisco Business Innovation Grant Program, which reimburses shops and restaurants for purchases they made to better adapt to operations during the pandemic.

With just under $200,000 still left in the pot, officials decided to reinvest the remaining money into an expansion of the existing programs.

“Let’s open it to the businesses we missed,” Mayor Hunter Mortensen said. “Let’s meet the goals … to take care of the community, and the ones who make us financially vibrant. I think that’s important and I think we can do that.”

Both grant programs will now have an application deadline of March 31, 2021, and the programs will be expanded to include new businesses that opened between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 last year. New businesses were held out of previous grant rounds because the programs previously required businesses to show losses in revenue between 2019 and 2020.

For this iteration of the program, new businesses will be able to receive grant amounts based on their gross revenue last year. Businesses can receive between $2,500 and $10,000 or twice their monthly rent or mortgage, whichever amount is less, depending on their revenue in 2020.

“If you started later in the year your revenue is going to be less, so you’re going to have a lesser grant than if you did start earlier and had a greater loss,” Town Manager Nancy Kerry said.

The extended grant programs will also allow the town to address businesses that missed the previous deadline.

“What I’ve seen is people have an incredible overload, and I actually explained to a number of businesses that they had not applied for this when I called them,” Frisco’s Communications Director Vanessa Agee said. “… They got confused with the Summit County innovation grant and this Colorado small business relief grant came out. People are stressed and overloaded, and they are missing deadlines for that reason.”

For questions regarding Frisco’s grant programs, email covid19grants@townoffrisco.com.