Relief Efforts in Progress

by Denton County Commissioner Precinct 3 Bobbie Mitchell photo courtesy by Commissioner Bobbie Mitchell

Denton County gives $35.1 million in small business grants to help support local economy.

Denton County Commissioners Court has granted a total of $35.1 million for both Phase I and Phase II of the Denton County OPEN business grants. The funds are from a portion of the stimulus money Denton County received from the U.S. Department of the Treasury under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act also known as the “CARES Act.”

Through the two phases, Denton County will have re-invested an average grant of $25,357 into 1,385 businesses that support an estimated 10,401 jobs. In Denton County, around 95.6 percent of all businesses employ fewer than 50 employees

In comparison, Tarrant County earmarked $30 million for business grants, Collin County is expected to provide $15 million for businesses and Dallas County earmarked $5 million. Travis County set aside $9 million for business grants while Bexar County awarded $11.75 million for businesses.

Helping residents is important to Denton County

Recognizing that people across Denton County have suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic, Denton County employees have been busy behind the scenes working to provide services that help keep people in their homes, assist economic recovery through business grants, help keep our police, fire and EMTs safe with personal protection equipment, providing free testing for COVID-19, and much more.

Since the pandemic began in March, Denton County has been busy:

Shoring up our local economy with $35.1 million in 1,385 small business grants Supporting our local non-profits with more than $2.5 million in grants to 43 non-profits, which includes an estimated $1.4 million for food, food trucks to feed the homeless, and refrigeration to preserve food and for transport.

Launching a fresh produce initiative at an estimated $2 million to ensure our hungry have plentiful fruits and vegetables. We delivered 785 boxes in the first week.

Providing 36 of our communities with an estimated $40 million to help pay for their COVID-19-related expenses

Spending just over $2 million on keeping people in their homes through an eviction prevention program.

Providing more than 419,300 masks, 628,300 gloves, 1,780 gowns, 5,535 hand sanitizers, 594 face shields, and 30 goggles to first responders in communities across the county, long-term care facilities, and our local non-profits providing services to our residents.

Denton County Public Health has offered thousands of free COVID-19 tests, not once but twice weekly for several months at locations around Denton County to ensure residents have access to the accurate PCR nasal swab tests.

Our health department has worked countless hours since this pandemic began reviewing and reaching out to each positive case as well as investigating each COVID-19-related death to ensure accuracy in our reporting to you – the public. They also operated a hotline to help the public with questions and worked with state and federal officials while also keeping in close communication with the public through news releases, social media, websites, graphics, and more.

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