Hundreds of grants to small businesses will be awarded at a special meeting this week as part of an effort spend $31.5 million in federal coronavirus relief funds, Westmoreland County commissioners said.

County officials said the first $10 million of the covid grants funds will be allocated to assist small businesses and nonprofit agencies that sustained financial losses because of the ongoing pandemic. Applications from 325 small businesses and 125 nonprofits were submitted in late July.

“All the small businesses that submitted applications, as long as they met the requirements for eligibility, will be getting money,” Commissioner Gina Cerilli said.

The county allocated an initial grant pool of $5 million for small businesses and another $5 million for nonprofits. Grants from the first phase of the program are capped at $25,000. Commissioners said the total amount requested by eligible small businesses did not exceed $5 million.

To be eligible, businesses had to prove they are based in the county and sustained revenue losses because of the pandemic. Some applicants did not meet those requirements, commissioners said.

Each application was initially reviewed by the Economic Growth Connection of Westmoreland before getting final approval from the commissioners.

“Some of the businesses that applied made more money in 2020 than in 2019, and they aren’t eligible,” Commissioner Sean Kertes said.

Reviews of nonprofit applications started this week. Grants could be awarded within the next several weeks, officials said.

Meanwhile, commissioners have started to survey local municipalities to determine how to spend another $10 million earmarked for grants awarded to local governments to cover coronavirus-related expenses. Applications for governments are expected to be opened within the next two weeks.

“We want to see how we can use this money,” Kertes said.

A second round of funding for small businesses and nonprofits will be released later this year. Changes are being considered to allow for a wider range of recipients, commissioners said. Eligibility requirements are being finalized.

According to federal guidelines, the county is required to spend all coronavirus relief funds by the end of the year.

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