Since the start of the pandemic, Summit County governments have distributed about $6.5 million in COVID-19 relief to businesses and individuals.

At a Summit County government town hall Jan. 29, Assistant County Manager Bentley Henderson presented on town and government business relief efforts. Since March, the county and town governments have given about $3.6 million in relief to small businesses and about $2.9 million to the Family & Intercultural Resource Center to support individuals in the community.

“These are funds that are distributed for a number of different programs: rent relief, direct business assistance and a whole host of items that are provided through various programs within (the Family & Intercultural Resource Center) and various programs that the local governments are providing,” Henderson said at the town hall.

The programs Henderson referenced have been active since the start of the pandemic. For individual assistance, county and town governments have donated to the nonprofit resource center, which has then used the money to support grants to help with rental relief and support its food bank.

Each municipality also is offering grants for small businesses.

Small businesses across the county have until Sunday, Feb. 7, to apply for as much as $7,000 in relief funding. The county was awarded $591,709 from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs in January to support restaurants, movie theaters, gyms, recreation centers and bars.

Each municipality has its own application for the money, so businesses should submit their application to their town or the county government if they’re located in unincorporated Summit County.

“We engaged with our local government partners in Frisco, Breckenridge, Silverthorne and Dillon to facilitate the distribution of those funds,” Henderson said. “The folks in Frisco or Silverthorne or Dillon have a better understanding of the needs of their businesses than those of us in Summit County might.”

The money comes from a special session, in which the state Legislature set aside $37 million for small-business relief. The money is available to any of the businesses that qualify, even if they’ve already received funding from another source, Henderson said.

So far, the county and towns have received about 100 applications for the program. Once the Sunday deadline has passed, the county will get together with the towns to decide how it will distribute the money. Henderson said businesses should receive funds after Feb. 19.

“I encourage people to apply because there’s still funding available even with that level of interest,” Henderson said.

Aside from the state-funded small business relief funds, the town governments have opened various relief programs to support businesses and residents. The only program currently open is the Business Revenue Reduction Rent Relief Program in Breckenridge, which provides immediate rent support for businesses that have experienced at least a 20% loss in revenue.

Businesses have until Feb. 28 to apply for the rental relief. The application for the program can be found at Breckenridge-Tuition-Assistance.FluidReview.com.

At the town hall, Commissioner Elisabeth Lawrence said officials will continue to monitor how the county and other municipalities can help support businesses and the workforce.

“For a lot of these businesses that we’re talking about, this is our front-line workforce, and we want to make sure that they’re staying healthy,” she said. “We know that they are currently being disadvantaged, and the virus is transmitting more among them in those front-line jobs.”