Middletown City Council allocated the funds on Sept. 15 that provided up to $170,000 for the forgivable business micro-loans of $10,000 each for local businesses that have 25 employees or less.
Those Middletown small businesses receiving the $10,000 forgivable micro-loans include:
- Mockingbirds Café
- Trap Headdz
- Digital Visuals
- TriTech Light and Sound
- BAABs
- Lion and Ram LLC
- Kemp Electric Supply
- At the Square
- Cedar Brook Acres
- Annie Up Boutique
- Swire Inn
- Mindful Healing Center (Freya Enterprises LLC)
- The Slice of Middletown
- KW Auto Sales
- Spoken Bicycles
- Lorac, Inc. (Carol’s Speakeasy)
- BeauVerre Studios
In addition to the CDBG forgivable micro-loans, the city also distributed $194,425 in SAVE grants for small businesses that were part of the CARES Act funding through the Butler County Commission.
Chris Xeil Lyons, city economic director, said most of Butler County’s communities took advantage of the program. She said the county commissioners allowed communities to administer the program.
Those businesses and grant amounts included:
- Annie Up Boutique, $5,675
- BAAB’s, $5,775
- BB Tech Services, $10,000
- BeauVerre Studios, $8,800
- Bourbon Kitchen (IB Gourmet Foods), $10,000
- Christina’s Creative Hair Design, $6,175
- Connections Day Spa, $6,375
- Dennis R. Beatty, Architect, $6,025
- Digital Visuals, $5,775
- Head Hunters Barber Shop, $5,425
- Interscope Manufacturing Inc., $10,000
- Lion and Ram LLC, $5,425
- Mockingbirds Café, $7,850
- MzJades, $6,625
- Positive Vibe Studio, $5,425
- Rolling Mill Brewery, $6,675
- Skateway, $6,075
- Spoken Bicycle, $5,425
- Superior Dealer Services, $6,825
- Swire Inn, $10,000
- Toast of the Town (Windamere), $7,400
- Trap Headdz, $5,325
- Triple Moon Coffee Company, $9,550
- TriTech Sound and Lighting, $6,125
- Gracie’s, $10,000
- Haven Studios, $10,000
- Indigo Pass, $5,675
Lyons said the grants for Gracie’s, Haven Studios and Indigo Pass, which Councilwoman Ami Vitori, her father Dennis Vitori and her husband Kevin Kimener, submitted applications for were legal because the funds were from the federal government. In addition, Lyons said the city requested a legal opinion on their applications which allowed the grants because they were not using city funds.
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