Town of Yucca Valley awards grant money to small businesses during crisis

Yucca Valley’s town council has launched an economic assistance program that awards grant money to local mom and pop shops, who have been closed during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Its been tough you know the bills don’t stop coming in," said Edward Costello.

Edward Costello opened up his own gaming lounge in Yucca Valley last year. Its been a dream of his for years.

Since the pandemic, his doors have been shut with monthly costs piling up. 

"With gaming, my internet bill alone is close to two grand a month and its a small place," said Costello. "I was really struggling about what I was going to do there.” 

Costello said he had looked into federal loans but quickly got discouraged about applying for the Paycheck Protection Program since he doesn’t have any workers on payroll. 

Through mutual friends, Costello had heard about Yucca Valley’s Economic Assistance Grant Program, which would award $5,000 to local mom and pop shops during the crisis. 

Within days of sending off his application, Costello received his grant check in the mail. 

“When I finally got that," said Costello. "It was a big relief so that I could really weather the storm for a bit longer.” 

According to the town council, Costello’s business was one of the 50 small businesses in Yucca Valley, who were awarded funds. 

“It’s going to go towards April and probably part of May if I can spread it out the right way but $5,000 is about my overhead per month," said Costello.

Yucca Valley’s Town Manager, Curtis Yakimow said the program was financed through Measure Y funds, which is the town’s half-cent sales tax to help fund public safety, infrastructure and quality of life programs.  

“The intent of the program was to assist our small independent local brick-and-mortar small businesses that might have difficulty in obtaining or accessing some of the broader or larger scale programs that were available through the federal government." said Yakimow.

Yakimow said their budget for the program was $250,000, which has all already been distributed among 50 small businesses. 

“You can’t help everybody." said Yakimow. "We would love to help everybody. Although the council is looking at potentially other ways that we might be able to continue some assistance.”