Yesterday, Erie News Now reported on a local business who was hoping to receive a County Block Grant. 

Today, however, Jessica Dorman, Owner of Creation Station, found out she was not approved. 

And because of that, she is worried her business doesn't have much time before shutting down. 

"I don't know, probably a month or two if that", said Dorman. Her business was one of 66 that was denied a grant by the county.

The reason she says the application was not approved was due to some errors she made during the process. "It was hard for me, because I thought they wanted projections normally, not COVID-19 projections", Dorman said. "It didn't really clarify that, so there was a miscommunication there".

The concern, however, is that Dorman believes the application was too difficult to fill out without help from an accountant.

"I don't think it's that easy", she said. "I'm sure that they made it as easy as possible, but for the normal person, a lot of small businesses who try to do everything alone and don't have accountants."

County leaders, however, believe the application was indeed simple, and the numbers show this. 

"We denied no one who qualified, who met the criteria", said Erie County Redevelopment Authority CEO Tina Mengine. "I know 181 [approvals] as opposed to 66 [who were not approved] means that the application wasn't that difficult."

According to Mengine, there are three reasons as to why business did not get approved for the grants. The reasons and breakdowns are below.

31 out of 66 businesses did not provide correct documentation as was required on the application.

12 out of 66 businesses failed to pay local taxes.

23 out of 66 businesses were considered "growth companies". Mengine says these were businesses who reported greater earnings in 2020 than in 2019.

Mengine also noted that any business who did not receive funding was contacted to correct the mistakes on their application. She says these applications would be considered if there were to be a second round of funding. 

But that isn't guaranteed.

"Unless the county has access to funds at the end and does a second round, I can't say whether they would get it or not", Mengine said. "I know it's really difficult and scary, and I feel bad for those that we weren't able to help, but I can confidently say that we did everything we could to try and help everybody."

This story was supported by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.