Marysville seeks input from business owners on possible uses of grant funds

Robert Summa, Appeal-Democrat, Marysville, Calif.
·3 min read

Jun. 17—After announcing last week that it would earmark $100,000 in American Rescue Plan Funds to provide economic relief to Marysville businesses, the city held a business roundtable on Wednesday in an effort to get public input on possible uses for that money.

Hosted by Marysville Community Development Director Dan Flores along with Yuba-Sutter Chamber of Commerce CEO Marni Sanders, Wednesday's meeting was part of an effort by the city to get "input from the Marysville business community to steer the development of this grant program to determine how grant funds will be allocated," the city previously said.

"We can't get there without you," Flores said during the meeting. "We need everybody to be involved with the planning process and we need your help and we need your input to make that happen."

Possible uses for the funding include storefront beautification, façade improvement projects, marketing efforts and technology upgrades. Flores said the money will provide an opportunity for area businesses to expand and succeed.

"Small businesses are the backbone of our community," Flores previously said. "The American Rescue Plan Funding creates a great opportunity for our businesses to grow and thrive as we make meaningful improvements in Marysville."

Flores said on Wednesday that of the millions potentially coming to Marysville, the city was taking this first step to help city businesses.

"The city of Marysville is receiving a sum of money somewhere in the range of $2.5 million to $3 million total, but they've decided to take $100,000 to start right now to dedicate to support local businesses," Flores said. "... What we're asking for is your feedback."

Flores said some of the feedback already received included parklets, way signage and online marketing. He said the focus of the initial grants is for for-profit businesses only.

"If you're a nonprofit, we have other things that we're working with you with, but for for-profit businesses, the idea is to take this $100,000 and set up a group of mini-grants to support your business," Flores said.

He said the amount per business that may be given out would be around $5,000. An application process may be set up for the grants, but the Marysville City Council would "ultimately decide who receives those grants."

A good number of the suggestions that were brought up during Wednesday's meeting didn't necessarily fit the criteria and intent for the grants. In fact, many of the ideas and thoughts are currently being considered in the city's update of its general plan and specific plan.

However, there were others that stressed the need for improvements to building façades and helping small businesses establish a better online presence.

Heather Thompson, owner of Brick Coffee House Café, said the money should be used to help stores improve their appearance.

"I think a great way for some of the funding to be spent, as far as applying for a grant for local businesses, would be allowing them to use the funds to make their storefronts nicer," Thompson said. "Whether that be proper signage outside of their store, paint that could be desperately needed, window replacement, parklets, but general beautification of the exterior of their company to make it look more appealing as people are driving through town. There's a lot of businesses that are open that don't even have proper signage."

Flores said after collecting all the feedback, the city will work on getting preliminary information out to the public sometime in the next coming weeks.