County board approves Get in the Cloud grants

The Cloud County board of commissioners approved awarding a total of $129,524.72 in Get in the Cloud small business grant funds to three area businesses during its regular meeting on Monday.
Businesses receiving grant awards include Republic Valley Landscape, LLC, $50,000; Meg's Grooming Salon, $47,680.72; and Geisler Roofing and Home Improvement, $32,844.
The Get in the Cloud grant program provides competitive grants and mentoring support for new and existing businesses.
Businesses submitting grant applications that are approved by the CloudCorp Get in the Cloud grant committee and county board of commissioners will be eligible for a one-time grant of 50 percent of the start-up costs or $50,000, whichever is less.
Existing businesses are eligible for grant funds if they can show increased sales/customer base from an addition to their current facility.
The Get the Cloud grants have been funded since 2014.
Earlier this year the county commission awarded $150,000 from the Meridian Way Wind Farm funds provided by EDP Renewables to fund the Get in the Cloud grant program.
The commission awarded $11,500 to 785 Nutrition and $8,747.74 to DownTown Girls
The county commission was provided information about the three grant applications approved by the grant committee.
Republican Valley Landscape - Nick and Amy Jackson have owned Republican Valley Landscape since 2015. During this time, they have grown the business with regional clientele and have expanded the services they offer including lawn and landscape maintenance and irrigation. As they have expanded their clientele and services offered, they have also increased staff and purchased additional equipment.  Because of this, they've sought Get in the Cloud funds to add additional office space to the existing structure on 1725 East Sixth Street. Currently, they have office space and computers for two people but need office space and computers for five people in order to run more effectively and efficiently, aiding in planning and ordering, and education and customer service, with the ability to add more retail items.
Meg's Grooming Salon - Meg Beikmann, owner of Meg's Grooming Salon, has been in the pet grooming business for over 10 years. Meg has recently purchased a building on Sixth Street in order to expand her current business. She has recently added obedience/training courses to her grooming business and is looking to continue to expand. Meg would like to construct a state-of-the-art all indoor boarding facility for pets as an additional expansion to the existing business. The boarding facility will contain 13 boarding suites as well as three completely waterproofed and easy to sanitize play yards, a cat boarding room, kitchen and half bath. The boarding facility will be operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week and will add two full-time positions as well as two part-time positions. She is seeking funds to help renovate the building and construct the boarding facility and make additional improvements to the HVAC system.
Geisler Roofing and Home Improvement -Dallas Hasenbank, president of Geisler Roofing and Home Improvement, applied for aid in constructing a 35x80 pole barn on the property located at 908 E. Sixth Street. This building will be used to store inventory and house the standing seam machine and corresponding material. Due to supply chain issues, this additional space will allow Geislers to order more inventory to have on hand for upcoming projects. As of now, products are backordered, putting jobs behind schedule, therefore causing construction crews to be idle. Having the ability to order in and store inventory for future projects will allow for completion of projects in a timely manner. The ability to store the standing seam machine will allow Geislers to keep the machine and its corresponding product out of the elements and allow for a better quality of product. Overall, having the ability to store additional inventory and keep the inventory/material away from the elements will aid in a timelier project completion and overall customer satisfaction.