In New Hampshire, upwards of 100 small businesses say they’ve been denied coronavirus relief funds because of a clerical error on their applications.
Many of those business owners are coming forward after NBC10 Boston's story about Ryan’s Place, a popular diner in Epping.
Andy Tierney and Mickey McDermot opened Ryan’s Place two years ago.
“It’s everything to us,” McDermot said Friday.
The diner was denied Main Street Relief funds because of an honest mistake on their application.
Tierney and McDermot accidentally typed a comma instead of a decimal point, turning what should’ve been $386,000 in revenue, into $386 million. And it turns out they’re not alone.
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State Senator Jon Morgan says he’s been contacted by several small business owners and has even heard from officials at the Business Finance Authority.
“They anticipate more than 100 businesses in State of New Hampshire alone are facing the same or similar circumstances as Ryan’s Place,” Morgan told NBC10 Boston on Sunday.
Mark Francis owns an auto body shop in Raymond. He says he must’ve typed in decimal points instead of commas, making his $80,000 in estimated losses, look like just $80.
So, the state sent him a relief fund check for a mere $13.
“And that’s when I got on the phone and found out there was no help whatsoever, the program ended and I couldn’t do anything,” Francis told NBC10 Boston.
And that’s true.
State officials say that under federal guidelines, they’re unable to allow any revisions to expected revenue after applications have been filed.
“The problem is these are small businesses, they are Main Street businesses, and they don’t go hire accountants, that is not how they get by, they do this work on their own,” Sen. Morgan said.
And they’ll have to do that work again, because starting Tuesday, those businesses that didn’t get any assistance from the Main Street Relief Fund can apply for gap funding.
Sen. Morgan says his team is ready to step in if anyone needs help with those applications.
Tierney, McDermot, and Francis are all hoping that gap funding will help them stay afloat.
