THE Building Optimism, Opportunities, and Stability Together or BOOST Program grant application deadline has been extended anew to Nov. 18.
The initial deadline was Sept. 18, which was first extended to Oct. 18.
Funded through the American Rescue Plan Act, BOOST is financial assistance to businesses in the form of grants initiated by the Office of the Governor, the CNMI Department of Commerce, and the CNMI Department of Finance.
A committee composed of representatives from these three entities review the applications, then make recommendations to Gov. Ralph DLG Torres for final approval.
A total of $12 million is available through this program, with no specific allocations for each of the senatorial districts.
The first few recipients of the BOOST Program Grant were announced Friday during a gala and expo at Saipan World Resort’s Taga Hall.
Among the recipients are Travis Jones for The Last Shot Bar, Lawrence Pangelinan for Sindalu Tactical and Surplus, Ben and Tina Atalig for their kalamansi farm, the Rota Historical Cave Museum, Pizzaria, K-Town Coffee, and Annie San Nicolas and Elvin Masga for their fishing boat, Le’Ana Vae.
The amount awarded to each recipient was not announced.
Torres said he has not denied nor does he plan to deny any application that reaches his office.
The governor urges grant recipients to provide “better services for the community” and to pay their taxes.
“When you succeed, we all succeed. We’re not going to talk about anything else but succeeding,” he said.
For his part, Secretary of Finance David DLG Atalig said, “This is a program that I feel is not going to be just a program that just starts and ends when the funds are done, but I think evolve.”
He said the governor wants to ensure that at least $1 million is available for fishermen, another $1 million for ranchers, and another $1 million for farmers.
The governor’s chief of staff, Wil Castro, said in this first round of grant awards, none of the submitted applications has been rejected.
“The point is there is a quality control measure to ensure the funds are being used properly because the last thing I want to do is give someone $100,000 and we never hear from them and we can’t account for that one. That’s not going to happen,” Castro said.
For more information, visit https://www.boostCNMI.com/.
