{"id":3668,"date":"2020-08-11T15:04:52","date_gmt":"2020-08-11T15:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?p=3668"},"modified":"2023-03-27T15:52:05","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T15:52:05","slug":"durham-officials-boast-of-giving-aid-to-small-businesses-but-dont-know-where-the-money-went","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2020\/08\/11\/durham-officials-boast-of-giving-aid-to-small-businesses-but-dont-know-where-the-money-went\/","title":{"rendered":"Durham officials boast of giving aid to small businesses, but don\u2019t know where the money went"},"content":{"rendered":"
Three weeks ago, city and county officials boasted in a press release that they doled out hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans and grants to dozens of small businesses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But which ones actually got the cash? Twenty-plus days later, not even Mayor Steve Schewel seems to know. Schewel and other city officials claim they don\u2019t know the recipients because the selection was done by a private group.<\/span><\/p>\n This much is known: 115 businesses have been approved for a combined $224,000 in Durham loans and about $800,000 in grants from Duke via the Durham Small Business Recovery Fund. The fund is made up of $1 million from Duke and about $2 million from Durham public funds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But city officials admit they are in the dark about which businesses got the money. Raleigh-based small business lending nonprofit Carolina Small Business Development Fund (CSBDF), which administered the program, didn\u2019t give Durham a list of businesses that got the cash, according to Andre Pettigrew, director of the city\u2019s Office of Economic and Workforce Development.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n