Here’s how Newark will spend $8.8M to boost small businesses as COVID recedes

The bills piled up for Keer Oliphant when her business, Kleen Kutz Beauty Salon in Newark, closed for about five months during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We have been at the same location since 1997 and when the pandemic came, it just felt like it was over,” said Oliphant as she stood outside her business on Bergen Street in the city’s South Ward.

In May, Oliphant received a $15,000 grant from the city that allowed her to break even on her losses. But customers are still slow to return, she said, especially because some found alternatives to styling their own hair during the pandemic.

The economic recovery in Newark and elsewhere in New Jersey isn’t just like flipping a switch. But Newark officials say they have a plan to boost the city’s economy.

Newark officials, standing alongside Oliphant on Thursday, unveiled a roadmap on how they will use $8.8 million in federal funds to support small businesses like Kleen Kutz in the first year of an…

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