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Business owners frustrated at pace of coronavirus grants
by Stephen Groves, The Associated Press
Posted Dec 30, 2020 4:19 pm EDT
Last Updated Dec 30, 2020 at 4:28 pm EDT
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. As an initial deadline passed Wednesday for South Dakota’s $450 million grant program to help small businesses upended by the pandemic, fewer than 20% of nearly 6,000 applicants have seen any money.
The deadline has been extended by the federal government, but some business owners expressed frustration at what they described as snags in the application process and a monthslong wait for the grants.
The grant program is a cornerstone of Republican Gov. Kristi Noem’s plan to spend $1.25 billion in federal coronavirus money, sending nearly a third to small businesses, startups and nonprofits that can show they have been hurt financially by the pandemic. But from bed and breakfasts in Sioux Falls to rodeo operators in Pierre, business owners have been left waiting for word on relief as they t