The Janesville City Council rejects the idea of a grant program for restaurants to help offset the cost of continuing to provide outdoor dining in the winter months.

Economic Development Director Gale Price says the problem with a grant program is that it would only help a limited number of businesses.

City Council Member Paul Benson says he introduced the idea of a grant program simply because so few restaurants had utilized the existing COVID-19 microloan program.

This week the Council directed City staff to make modifications to the existing COVID-19 microloan program to make it more restaurant friendly, like delaying payments for six months and dropping the interest rate to zero percent.