COVID-19: The Colony EDC Provide Business Recovery Checklist and Resources

Dear Business Partner –

On behalf of The Colony Economic Development Corporation, I wish to assure you that nothing is more important than the health and safety of our residents and businesses. We have been closely monitoring developments regarding the Coronavirus (COVID-19) for several weeks, and we share your concerns.  It has been our intent to keep you informed of vital information to help your business, starting with our presentation to the Chamber on Emergency Preparedness last year.  Drawing from the Business Continuity presentation/plan, we have created a Business Retention Coronavirus Recovery Checklist (attached) which will help with guidelines for the immediate actions a local business should take during this time.

In addition to the immediate steps on the attached checklist, I wanted to provide some information to businesses, specifically on the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Disaster Assistance Loan program.

Here is the link to the SBA press release outlining the process for accessing the relief funding loans:

SBA Disaster Assistance Loans for Small Businesses Impacted by COVID-19

One criterion for qualifying is being in a disaster-designated area by the SBA (see bullet below).   Texas is currently not on the list.

  • Any such Economic Injury Disaster Loan assistance declaration issued by the SBA makes loans available to small businesses and private, non-profit organizations in designated areas of a state or territory to help alleviate economic injury caused by the Coronavirus (COVID-19).

In order to get an area declared as eligible, the State has to receive five SBA validated Economic Injury Worksheets, and then the Governor may request the Economic Injury Disaster Declaration. Denton County will need to submit at least one valid Economic Injury Worksheet in order to be included on the declaration.

The process is outlined by the Texas Department of Emergency Management (TDEM) link:

Use this link https://tdem.texas.gov/covid-19 for more detailed information and to fill out the required form (Economic Injury Worksheet) for submission.  It is very important that the “Estimated Adverse Economic Impact” section of the form be completed in its entirety.  The “brief explanation” field should also include comments that state “the economic impact is directly related to COVID-19.”

You may find additional information at the U.S. Small Business Administration’s website listed below:

https://www.sba.gov/disaster

Please forward this information to anyone you feel appropriate.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Diane Lemmons, Business Retention & Expansion Manager, dlemmons@thecolonytx.org , 972-624-3111.

You can download the Business Retention Coronavirus Disaster Recovery Checklist here (229k pdf)

Best Regards,

Keri Samford
Executive Director of Development