$11M left in Bar & Restaurant Assistance Fund with four days remaining

The Ohio Department of Commerce said that, with four days remaining to apply for a grant from the state’s Bar & Restaurant Assistance Fund, there is still $11 million left in the budget.

ODOC also said that nearly 4,400 eligible businesses with liquor permits still haven’t applied.

According to data from the Ohio Department of Commerce on Wednesday, 560 locations with liquor licenses in the greater Dayton area still have not applied for grants. Most of these locations are in Montgomery, Butler and Warren counties.

By county, that total breaks down to:

  • Montgomery County: 192 locations
  • Butler County: 136 locations
  • Warren County: 79 locations
  • Greene County: 50 locations
  • Clark County: 44 locations
  • Miami County: 27 locations
  • Darke County: 15 locations
  • Preble County: 11 locations
  • Champaign County: 6 locations

The Department of Commerce said that the state is unlikely to extend the deadline to apply again, but that leftover funds might be reallocated by the governor’s office.

The Bar & Restaurant Assistance Fund offers non-competitive grants of $2,500 per unique business location to businesses with on-premise liquor licenses.

It was created as part of a larger CARES Act spending package created back in late October, which also allocated millions of dollars to finds benefiting groups like arts organizations, nonprofits, colleges and universities, and rural and critical-access hospitals.

The fund opened to applications on Nov. 2. It originally had a deadline of Dec. 30, 2020, but the deadline was extended to early January, then to Jan 31.

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