What's Happening in Champaign County, Ohio?

CARES Grant for Champaign County Small Businesses

10/29/2020

Funds aimed to help small business hit by pandemic

Click to apply between Oct. 30 - Nov. 13!

The Champaign Economic Partnership (CEP) has partnered with the Champaign County Commissioners to administer CARES Act funds to Champaign County small businesses impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic. Businesses could be awarded up to $10,000 if approved for the grant.

“Our local economy has been negatively impacted with the Coronavirus and our small businesses are some of the hardest hit,” said Marcia Bailey CEP Economic Development Director. “These funds are an expense reimbursement grant and will help get the businesses through this difficult time."

To qualify for the grant program, businesses must:

Be locally owned and physically located in Champaign County
Have 50 or less employees as of January 2020
Be current on all state, federal and local taxes
Be in good standing with all applicable government regulations

Some examples of eligible reimbursable expenses include:

Business mortgage or lease costs
Business utilities, such as electric, gas, sewer, water, trash, business insurance etc.
Materials and supplies related to interruption of your business caused by required closures
Business costs related to compliance with Responsible RestartOhio.

Businesses that have received funding for expenses arising from the pandemic cannot submit the same expenses for reimbursement under the CARES Grant for Champaign County Small Businesses.

“We are so appreciative of our small businesses and although there is great uncertainty, Champaign County is hopeful that businesses receiving these grant funds will successfully persevere through the COVID-19 pandemic.” Bailey said.

Applications and grant guidelines are available at www.champaignworks.com/CARESGrantChampaignCounty beginning October 30, 2020. Application deadline is November 13, 2020 at 5:00 pm. Due to the short application period, we recommend you apply as soon as possible. In order to assist you, please send your questions to info@cepohio.com.

Businesses are also encouraged to visit https://businesshelp.ohio.gov for additional assistance. Governor DeWine announced CARES Act funding through the State of Ohio for small business and others that have been impacted financially by the pandemic.

Apply Online

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Champaign County Engineer attends White House event

7/15/2020

Stephen McCall

Story/photo from Urbana Daily Citizen

National Association of County Engineers (NACE) Northeast Region Vice-President and Champaign County, Ohio Engineer Stephen McCall participated in a White House address where President Donald J. Trump highlighted the regulatory actions taken to expedite infrastructure projects at an event entitled Rollback of Regulations Helping All Americans.

“Local infrastructure is the backbone of our national infrastructure network,” said McCall. “NACE supports the Administration’s efforts to improve the federal review process for infrastructure projects. Time equals money, and when it comes to our local roads and bridges, we cannot afford to wait for Washington red-tape to clear before addressing our infrastructure needs.”

NACE is a nonprofit, nonpartisan professional association in its 64th year, representing over 3,000 county road officials and related professionals in the U.S. and Canada. In the U.S., local roads account for about 75% of highways and roads, or 2.93 million miles. Counties manage 1.74 million miles of those roads. Counties also own 231,000 bridges and operate one-third of the nation’s transit systems.

Champaign County Engineer Stephen McCall is in his 30th year of service with Champaign County, and first elected as County Engineer in 2012. Stephen has served on many County Engineers Association of Ohio committees, including the Ways and Means, Public and Local Support, Legislative and CEAO Handbook Co-Chair committees. In 2015, McCall served as President of the Professional Land Surveyors of Ohio. Locally he has served as the president of the Logan-Union-Champaign Planning Commission.