Small businesses potentially see relief as second round of PPP loans open for application

BECKLEY, WV (WOAY) – Small business owners everywhere are curious about pandemic relief initiatives.

Earlier this month, the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, was made available once more to businesses. The Beckley Raleigh County Chamber of Commerce held a town hall Wednesday morning to answer potential questions from local business owners.

During the town hall, Jina Belcher, Executive Director of the New River Gorge Regional Development Authority said that similar to the first round of loans, these can be forgiven if 60% of the loan is spent on payroll costs, and the process has for loan forgiveness has been simplified.

“This round of funding will feature loan forgiveness just like the first round of funding. The SBA will produce a simplified, one-page loan forgiveness application for loans that are smaller than $150,000, which makes forgiveness pretty easy,” Belcher said. 

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, PPP loans are designed to be fully forgiven if certain criteria are met, such as:

• Employee and compensation levels are maintained
• The loan proceeds are spent on payroll costs and other eligible expenses; and
• At least 6% of the proceeds are spent on payroll costs