The city of Globe allocated CARES act money to public safety projects and small businesses

The city of Globe, Arizona received money from the CARES Act, but some small business owners are concerned about how it is being distributed.

The City Council claims it was upfront, but some business owners claim that they never knew the money was there. To learn more, we spoke with the Mayor of Globe, Al Gameros.

“Globe received $843,000. We were awarded that money from the governor’s office, back in July, and it’s in accordance to population,” said Gameros.

Gameros mentioned that some money was allocated to the police and fire departments and public safety projects. Then, as time went on, requirements became more clear that the money could be used to help small businesses.

“We understand that the small businesses are the heartbeat of our community. They have continued to struggle during this time in the past year, and some are even on the verge of closing down for good,” said Gameros.

The city of Globe hosted a town hall meeting to discuss what to do for these small businesses. The decision resulted in 18% of the funding, totaling to $150,000, to go towards a business relief grant.

Some small businesses showed frustration that they did not know this funding existed and felt as though it was kept from them.

Gameros stated that the reasoning behind the small businesses not originally getting funding is because they needed to be careful with the “general fund” and they were not given clear instruction on how the money could be allocated.

“It wasn’t anything about hiding anything…I understand their frustration with our business community that we should have brought this forward, quicker. But now that we understand it and we’ve heard them. Now we want to move forward in a positive direction,” said Gameros.