Olympia allocates $1 million of city funds to support community economic recovery

OLYMPIA - The Olympia City Council voted Tuesday night to distribute $1 million of economic development reserves to support community economic recovery efforts in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The money from the city’s economic development reserves would be magnified with about half a million dollars from the federal government, city officials added. Overall, city officials estimate the city needs a total of $1.5 million to adequately begin addressing economic recovery.

“We are anticipating $550,000 through CARES act reimbursement which would mean we would require $1 million in funds from our economic reserves” said Mike Reid, the city's economic development director.

Reid started working on a plan to assist the city’s economy in recent months as the novel coronavirus wreaked havoc on the region’s –– and the world’s –– economy. 

“We knew when COVID-19 started that there was never going to be enough resources for the City of Olympia to help each individually affected person or businesses in the community,” Reid said during the meeting. “We had to reach out to our partners, businessmen, and enterprises for equity and find ways to leverage their expertise, their reach, to get to our business community, our employers and employees and those who are suffering through this crisis.”

The proposed plan includes an estimated budget of $1 million to complete the project. The proposed recovery scope of work includes economic opportunities and support for minority-owned businesses budgeted for $65,000, better childcare ventures for $50,000, providing $125,000 of residential rental assistance , a $450,000 grant to reopen businesses, a $35,000 provision  for businesses to move to a co-op environment for and “economic resilience” planning totaling $200,000.

The city council approved the proposed plan and is hopeful that it will support the community to recover the ongoing economic strains on account of the current pandemic.